My parties are over. My books have come out. My latest article in Fine Woodworking has been delivered online, in bookstores and in mail boxes. My children at school finished their toy making project and are now making Christmas trees out of wood.
Yesterday I went to a Christmas party to celebrate ESSA's volunteers. As my contribution I went to our local fudge maker and bought two pounds of fudge to share with guests. In the meantime, my rustic coffee table at the Writer's Colony where the party was being held had been taken out of service to return to me. I was uncertain how it had come into their possession in the first place, and was reminded that I had loaned it to them for a display, and they had not forgotten it was to be returned. That it was still mine came as a complete surprise to me.
In any case, when you've been working with wood for for as long as I have, you will remember your work, but may become fuzzy on the disposition of it. Rather than bring it home or find some other fresh place to put it, I've now assigned it to a more permanent loan to the Writer's Colony, and they were pleased. That particular table was made for my Rustic Furniture Basics Book available from Taunton Press. Remember the special code, Taunton1. Some of my other books can be found HERE.
You can see that I've made it through a day in which there was nothing to say. Making beautiful and useful things is just about the same. If you want to become a maker, you must set yourself in motion making things. And it you want to have a permanent, lasting impact on the world around you,
Make, fix, create, and uphold for others the likelihood of learning likewise.
Hi Doug
ReplyDeleteI am glad that there are only a very limited number of days in a year where you feel that you haven't got much to say.
If you had that feeling more often you might become a politician :-)
Joking aside, I made a run of X-mas trees last year for Gustavs class to assemble. They were made out of a 1x1" stick that was 16" high. There were 4 dowels 4,8,12 and 16" long that were to be fitted in four evenly spaced holes. The foot was made out of two 1x1" pieces half lapped on the middle. A screw from the bottom into the "trunk" completed the tree.
They sat all December in the window sills in their class room and each student could make small ornaments to hang onto the dowel branches.
Brgds
Jonas
That sounds like a good design and a good thing for the students to add to during the month.
ReplyDeleteActually, I always have a lot to say, but some of it regarding the stupidity of politics in America, and the stupidity of elected officials, I try to avoid.