Following the Dream

In school at 14 a dream emerged slowly and took deep root. It wasn't a nighttime dream, every day I looked, stared and listened out through the open window of the classroom in search of kestrels and skylarks high and then wagtails on the playground below. I loved the late spring when the warmer weather sloughed off the remains of England's then colder winters. when the school windows were open fresh air flowed through. It was a time when the skies seem ever full and the air enlivened by bird song. The dream? It was my love for nature that opened my mid to working with nature's bounty, wood. I decided then that I could become a furniture maker. Could my dream become a reality?

It took a long time coming. I never became one of those studio maker, or a bespoke designer thingy. I didn't need to. I just arrived one day and there I was discovering myself in the dream of 30 years before. I didn't copy anyone else, emulate others becauseInever met them, followed them and didn't want to. I did see the lives of makers through the years that exemplified the heart of the maker and these were men I respected for the simplicity of their lives, they, like me, made a piece and sold a piece, made a piece and sold a piece. I realised then that the only thing I wanted was not fame and fortune but a lifestyle I felt settled to. I've arrived.

I'm never really sure of how a build will come out. Sketches reduce the risk of failure not because you have a drawing but because drawings make you think. In my apprentice time sketches came to the bench on a cigarette packet opened out flat. No plastic wrapped soft packs back then. Neat, white folded card stock. My tambour shoe tidy from oak came from my dreaming future career back in 1964. Not the tambour thing, the making things thing. But this week, working through the joinery, haunches and internal mitres, the balance between thick and thinner mortise walls and then strength too all came to reality in the zone.

The activity builds as I flit between tasks but it's all coordinated as much as it ever can be. Composition is reflected in any piece you make, at least it should be. I let things less important slip a little for the sake of continuity in working, thinking, economy of time and such. My favourite time mid stream and at the end is cleaning and organising, but when I am on a roll, that's when the juices flow in torrents, eddies funnels and rapids. You catch the wave and just ride.

I like making all of the pieces I make though you never see me really struggling and maybe even ditching the design altogether. That rarely happens but it could. This one came through for me as did the wine rack and a dozen others from 2019. The first two episodes or out already on woodworkingmasterclasses, com and the desk organiser part one is up on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHcW_kmzPrY too, so lots to sink your teeth into.