Yesterday

I had to stop working on my project after my prototype was completed and half way through the real one because we had work being done on the building and the noise levels would have sounded like a violent horror movie. It's funny that I enjoyed making both, even though there is no difference between the two at all; both are made of oak, same identical joinery and component parts, but the break was welcome because I could catch up on some of my other non-filming things.

The new design gave me great satisfaction even though when I design a piece I design the whole in my head before any pencil touches paper or a plane to the wood and I feel then that I have already made it. I think perhaps it was because it was more out of keeping for me. I think too there are elements of it that are transferable and I have never seen anyone do what I did by hand using only hand tools only. On both of the two projects it all worked so perfectly. I am sure you will like what you get and no, sorry, there's no birch plywood this time.

At the conclusion of filming comes a period of thought. This thoughtfulness is intrinsic to all that I do including writing blog posts, and working out the video production, teaching and training. Knowing I am about to enter into a new project, I strive to make it educational and interesting. There is overspill too. My apprentices get to see the work ahead of time. Currently I have three people in training one on one and that's especially important to me as well as to them. Many of the things I teach came from striving to find answers for my students in the classes I have taught over the past three decades. Currently I am working in new spheres to develop new curriculum that's unwritten anywhere. I test things out on myself first. It's important to know how I feel by any extra sensory way I can. Firstly I feel something is so, so I try it without knowing the reason why I think that. Usually it is right, though I don't know why. There's a tightening of the key known senses in the sense of magnification that develops and creates additional information behind or beyond what I see and feel. This somehow confirms my ideas. Confirmation like this is the magical perception I need to take my experience on into the future developments. It's this that opens the doors to understanding and knowledge.

What excites me at the moment is thinking through current designs and looking to the future with designs for the forthcoming house full of furniture. It's a blank sheet for me. I have no plans to copy other styles like Shaker or Arts and Crafts, Ball & Claw feet and such. Colonial styles, Regency, Victorian periods belong back there in the pretentions of their eras but the methods are still pertinent for us today. The styles I might leave out but the adoption of principles and methods should never be discarded. My view is that they were created for that margin of society bound up in socio economic advantage. I like working furniture, nicely made for working people. Imagining Adam and Hepplewhite styles? Nope! We're not copying others, though I have no doubt influences will influence.