Happy or contented with work?

The textures in work are so diverse man merely glimpses them in snatches, little more than flashes but even those flashes far exceed an image and even a film. A mouth moves from smiling satisfaction to abrupt tensity and stock-still shock in split seconds parted by steps of transition in fifty convoluted shapes and each stage reflects the tensions between these two extremes of emotion.

Texture is atmospheric, deeply felt and superficial and we penetrate these invitations of sight to whatever depth we want to. Touching a wood surface and looking at what people call grain is the most superficial level.

My eyes catch moments of texture between workers at the bench and faces opposing one another in conversation. The texture of delicate hands counter the heavy muscle on another bench and both texturise the atmosphere as I sit and glean as if garnering the shapes that show how work is accomplished by the lightweights and the heavyweights. Here I write with my mind a record of how work is accomplished in people learning to work with their bodies that give texture no machine ever can.

I like that man is not a machine until he works with a machine. He isolates himself in spheres so precious when the shape is formed and the kerf cut by a saw extended by his arm. This entry into the material is the extension of who he is; he’s powered to engage the work by this texture of handwork and so the machine opposes this spectacular isolation of textured life.

My students have left and then today the shop seemed silent but for my workbench noises as I make my new chair. Here it’s made as a prototype in redwood pine from eastern Europe. It’s simple in look as yet and needs some more shaping ti get the full appearance I want. 26 mortise and tenons, some of which are compound—it’s a very unique and unusual detail I chose to build into this chair for training. It takes me a day to build this chair and when we film the new one in oak it will look expensive. Someone said IKEA makes one  from pine and I say I don’t care too much as mine are made by my hands to last about 150 years and theirs perhaps only a few.

Many woodworkers are intimidated by chair making and that includes professional furniture makers. It’s also true that the methods making them by hand are very rewarding once you climb over the doubts. Remember the fear of failure is often unrealistic.

Anyway, this is a fairly conventional chair but it’s the steps we take that build skills and knowledge that create the dynamic we need for chairmaking to become part of you. It starts with a chair like this one made from solid wood with the chair joint.

Today was restful to me as I worked alone after the class last week. People came and went as I leave the workshop door open for visitors to see a textured way of living. A lady asked my quietly, “Are you happy?” I am not sure why she asked, but I said that I wouldn’t feel to describe myself that way. She seemed surprised and I think that my answer missed the mark in her book. I think she did perhaps have some picture in her mind of what I would feel in the stillness of my workshop but it didn’t really fit what I felt. I tried for a minute to think how I could express to her what it’s like to draw a picture on a block of wood and then make the drawing become something like a chair with just a pair of hands. The words defied such textures so I left it at that and smiled at my shoulder lines and arches and the way the chair felt when I sat in it and then as she turned for the door I said, “How about contented?”