A good week
Its been a good week made up of some really productive days in the shop, with several projects coming along nicely and another completed. As Hannibal used to say, I…
Its been a good week made up of some really productive days in the shop, with several projects coming along nicely and another completed. As Hannibal used to say, I love it when a plan comes together.
With a deadline looming for a book of woodworking projects, Ive been in high gear lately. The sawdust has indeed been flying in the Hamler shop, and the finished projects are literally stacking up, awaiting the day when I take what are called beauty shots of the finished work for use as lead photos for each project in the book.
Its satisfying to see the results of all the hard work collected en masse, but as I always do with projects that I dont immediately give away to the intended recipient, I start analyzing them to death I could have done this differently; I could have made this longer, or that shorter, or the other thing wider; I could have done a better job on a particular joint, etc. Do you do that? Are you as harsh on your own work as I am on mine? Id be willing to bet you are.
Ive generally found it true that creative people and we woodworkers fall into that class are among the most self-critical. It can be maddening sometimes. Ive actually scrapped a project or two in my time or tore out a particular component or assembly and redid it because I simply wasnt pleased with what Id done, in spite of the fact that no one else can see the flaw that seems glaring to me.
But I think thats a good thing. On the one hand, the more we strive for perfection the more we learn by doing (and sometimes doing again and again). It also means that we care about our work and about our own creative processes. On the other hand, we can seemingly waste a lot of good shop time reinventing our personal wheels.
I dont mind though, really. The day I start looking at something Ive done and can find nothing wrong with it, nothing I could change, or nothing I could have done better, then I know thats the day Ive stopped learning. More importantly, that will be the day that Ive stopped being creative.
And if that ever happens, I may as well start practicing saying, You want fries with that?
Till next time,
A.J.
A.J. Hamler is the former editor of Woodshop News and Woodcraft Magazine. He's currently a freelance woodworking writer/editor, which is another way of stating self-employed. When he's not writing or in the shop, he enjoys science fiction, gourmet cooking and Civil War reenacting, but not at the same time.
