Post Covid

Well, we are not post COVID, but I wasn't sure how everyone felt about COVID-19 in their particular sphere of creativity. It has been a sad year for many in that they have suffered losses in the people they loved and were close to and then of course there has been so much fear surrounding the pandemic by way of losing what was once normal to them. In some ways, we must face a more uncertain future resulting from the global impact on every quarter of our lives and yet this week I did sense a few periodic bubbles of joy as I heard things unheard for a few weeks. In my world the year 2020 improved my vision for the future. I designed over 20 things I might never have made and I cleared a huge backlog of disorder to archive most of everything I own. Clearing the decks is important to my future work as we expand our offerings to include the houseful of furniture for sellershome.com. This is not a new thing for me so this I do several times in the year, but with moving workshops twice, things accumulate that cannot be categorised at the time for different reasons. When of my best achievements was the categorisation and archiving of hand tools and other aspects of equipment etc. I feel quite proud of this as I can now type in travisher and Ormskirk slitting gauge and find bith in two clicks of a mouse (except I haven't used a mouse in ten years or more).

I had my COVID injection a little over a week ago and i did affect me a little for a couple of days. I thought seriously about it as the possibility neared and I had no doubt that it would be a good thing for me to have it. The NHS and the volunteers were wonderful and I can't imagine how anything could be better organised. Hard to imagine 16 million people vaccinated in so short a time. Well done NHS.

I feel that my sanity has been saved by the return of my social sanity partners in the presence of those I have worked with through the years. On the east side of my garage workshop wall I have Jack, Hannah and John who bless me with questions day in day out as they make. On the north side of the bricks is everyone who actually provides life support to me in the form of video, social media interaction, general office needs and editorial work. Much of this takes place at home these days and why not if it keeps everyone safe. Of course. some things cannot be home-based and so I do get to see each person from time to time. It is hard to believe that it has been a year since we were trying to decide whether this virus was real or not but within a week or so of this date a year ago we suddenly knew this was the verge of a p[andemic that would rock the world.

My creative sphere is in a pretty near constant state of flux. One minute I'm neat and tidy and the next a dozen clamps find space to rest on the floor after I just dismantled an assembly to release bent wood from its constraints in a caul. Several rocking chairs rest round me and I am busy on the final version as we film it.

Over the weekend I made the living room at the house ready for its first hand-made piece in the Living room series. I have a two-and-a-bit-person leather couch being delivered in the morning and within a few days, my rocking chair will be there too. I say all of this because I wanted two more coats of floor finish on the floor well in time for it to cure before furniture goes on it. I am so happy with the discovery of the wooden herringbone pattern beneath the old carpet and lino. It looks so lovely now and I picture a couple of rugs there to make it pleasant. This coming week I can hopefully finish the cherry rocking chair. I am so close, then I can start the next piece. I have about ten pieces to make for this room so I am looking forward to the coming weeks.

I'm truly hoping that this will indeed inspire everyone to consider making their own houseful of furniture and that all of you will join me on the journey. I have some more very exciting news for you all but I'll save that for another post soon.

Okay, all of my friends, be safe, be well and as a friend of mine who is native American Hopi Indian says, "Be Hopi!"