Work Update

I'm a lucky man, really. And by lucky, I mean that the decisions I made were made possible by my early choosing of my vocational calling. That's of key importance to remember. You see, luck plays nothing in the grand scheme of things. It wasn't a gamble which is what lotteries and casinos all have in common. I will never win the lottery nor at a blackjack game. My fortunate life comes from simply working and working simply. I get to make, get to make my own pieces, get to design them, choose all of my wood, work for myself (which is a fallacy), pick my hours, choose where to work, what to do when, and so on. Reading this can give anyone the impression of a special self-employed freedom that actually doesn't exist but I liken it to the illusion of some who work the closing few years of work for something called retirement. The main difference in my self-employment is that I have chosen my work-life, worked diligently at it full time and then, more importantly, how I work it. For the last 45 years, I have chosen to work a 60-hour week minimum. Sometimes it's been for a few dollars an hour, rarely if ever a living wage. I have never worked the recognised full week of 35 hours, ever. . . My choice, sort of, but I was willing to work the longer hours to live the life I love and provide for my family when the boys were young enough to live still at home.

My children growing up, marrying and having their own families gave me a new freedom to pursue more of what I now do which came as a surprise I didn't expect. And I am not really sure why I didn't consider it but one thing I am truly thankful for is that I got to train them to work with wood to a really good depth. Joseph is key to a lot of what we do. Each project I make is an issue for discussion between him and me and then too the team ivloved in filming the whole thing. It makes my life easy to have these discussions ahead and to look for any potential issues. Making the stool above would have been one of their projects when they first started in the woodshop and what led them to building a whole slew of the projects you see in all of the projects on the blog and on woodworkingmasterclasses.com and of course, commonwoodworking.com too

Today I started blitzing my workspace. I have been too busy to pick and put up as I should of late and maybe it is worth a time lapse because I plan some major changes that may not be noticeable when done. I have allowed materials, tools and waste to build up over a number of months and replication of many projects causes some space issues. If I were to show this in a photograph here people would say that looks like my shop and justify what is more possibly simple laziness or lack of discipline. In some cases, it can be like mine, simply a lack of time or space or both.

My designing and prototyping and making videos all the more understandable doubles or even triples the output necessary just to design and make a piece. Cardboard cutouts take time and space and a prototype means almost a full make, albeit in a lesser wood, like scraps of pallets or plywood offcuts. Nevertheless, it helps me to prepare for the filming as I see the filming as an equal craft to my own and thereby I try to ensure our videographers have access to the shots they want to get and this can often mean a repeat to cut in as a closer view or another angle for a different perspective.

Part of my work is to review the edits after the editing is done. I choose or record voiceovers to explain or bring clarity. Usually, I watch a video without sound first. This then helps me to interpret what happens without verbal instruction or input from sound and sentence. Then I allow sound and watch again. it's not like watching myself. I feel like I am watching someone else. Today and yesterday I got to review two projects, the first episode of my elliptical tables, and then the three-legged stool I designed to be made by those new to hand tool woodworking which I made and filmed a few weeks ago as a free masterclasses.com video and probably YouTube too. I wanted something that came from a joiner's workbench rather than a shaving horse with drawknives and wood under blockheaded shaving horses in a woodland coppice which 95% of woodworkers would have no access to. Getting it to the joiner's workbench would well suit my audience. A QR (quick release) vise handles the whole but so too would a Black & Decker Workmate if that's all you have.