Look Deeper - Underneath the Melamine of Life

My Work Brings Me Fulfilment and Satisfaction; Peace is a Reward for Working with my Hands

Thank you for all your responses to the previous blog. I often feel a little hesitant to post blogs like this because I know so many of you work in mundane commercialism and difficult soul-destroying jobs without the option to change your circumstances. I understand this and hope I can make a difference long term. Don’t give up. The important thing is to see the manipulation of life by people like Henry Ford, politicians (some of whom never did a lick of real work in their lives but talk a lot about it), economic strategists, educationalists and so on. The interconnection between them all gives understanding as to  the powers they hold to progress agendas without any real accountability. It may seem a little paranoid but when we don’t see the cross-pollination between these areas we get caught up in the games and are always chess pieces being moved from one square to another. The dynamic that drives people in their pursuit of so called happiness is often illusionary; little more than a few greenbacks dangling just far enough away to walk us into utopia – literally ‘no place’. If what I have had these past decades is no place then that’s great. Many are driven by a vain hope of high wages, more power, social standing and recognition. Finding contentment at the end of a chisel seems stupid to some, “Get a life!” some might say, yet to me, seeing a piece of furniture emerge from a handful of rough-sawn planks by my workbench somehow carries deep, enriching meaning. I have put food on my table and raised my children from a one-wage income family throughout my married life. Times can be lean, but the outcome is a lived life. My workshop is my classroom. Working with my hands I learn about life, the relationships life working brings to me and passes to others. When I worry about working for a living I have put the cart before the horse. I live to work not work to live. If I feel down, it is always when I am not working with my hands. As soon as I feel down, which is very rare, I walk through the woods to my workshop, pull out the tools and the project I am working on, and suddenly life makes much sense. I think of the problems I need to resolve while I am working and suddenly, as a joint comes together, I find answers that resolve what bothered me outside the work I am doing. Now I can deal with that too.

This is a desk of mine. I designed in 2008, just before I designed two unique designs for the Permanent Collection of the White House

Today we worked in our various spheres of creativity. I am done with bookshelves, Phil is done with his stool and John is making the handles for his tool chest. Next week we all start anew on fresh projects I suppose. Phil already started his. We have some clean up to do but that doesn’t take long and John already has the tools ready for the next class starting on the 15 March. Besides the work we must do in making and building, filming, writing, drawing, planning designing, we all found time for tool restoration. repairing split nuts on old tenon saws, recutting saw teeth, fettling different planes and so on. I think many people would like to live close to a workbench and do this kind of work.

I hope that one day we will indeed see a revival where people local to us will say I’ll save up for having my next computer desk or dining table made by hand by a local craftsman using real tools, real skills from real wood.

That they will say, “Forget IKEA and Walmart, I want something that will last a hundred years.” I think that is is more a question of getting people to think differently. Spending time with people, customers or not, and explaining what the difficulties are and showing why it makes sense to by solid stuff.

Look beyond the superficial, underneath the smooth and shiny veneer of melamine ( can’t believe that stuff has been around as long as it has) to see what you are really buying. What good is a 1 year warranty on a fiberboard computer desk. Yes, if you don’t move it for a year, it will stay together. It’s after that that people should be looking at. I made a computer desk five years ago (the one third down from the top above) It will last for a hundred years because of the solid wood and the methods of joinery I used. it can be refinished in a few minutes and without stripping it.