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Recent Bios FAQ

210345 AAAndrew <annarborandrew@g...> 2010‑12‑03 bio update
Seeing the galootaclaus activity and Mike's bio update reminded me
that I had intended to get to this as well one of these days. No
time like the present, I guess. I came late to wood and hand tools,
only starting to discover an interest back in 2000 or so. It started
when my wife and I bought our first house and I actually had some
space (in the basement at the time) and needed to tinker and work on
various stuff for the house, so I decided to build myself a basic
workbench. That was my discovery of the slippery slope. I was a
former grad student at the Univ. of Michigan (Ancient Chinese Art
History) and still had access to the university's wood shop. I took
a tour, took the safety class and realized how crazy these people
were with all of this whizzing, dangerous craziness going on. They
also had a few hand tools which interested me, and then one fateful
day, I stumbled upon The Porch. That was the great push that sent me
down the slope. I've been through three benches and two houses since
then. I'm now in North Carolina, have a five-year-old son, and my
workshop is in a tiny spare bedroom on the second floor. I've built
a few pieces of furniture, but my biggest, and most satisfying
project thus far has been my work bench. I built a Roubo-style bench
that is solid as a rock. The top is hard maple, the base is regular
maple, and I'm particularly fond of the wagon vise I devised. I
still need to get around to making the sliding deadman. One of these
days. Lately I've been becoming more interested in green wood
working, riving and splitting wood. I have a froe and a stump and a
massive, white oak club, but haven't had the opportunity to tackle a
larger log than a regular firewood sized section of tree. One of
these days I'm going to make myself some wooden wedges, and get a
tree, and go at it. I've really enjoyed the work of Peter Follensbee
and would love to take one of his classes and see a master at work.
That phrase, "One of these days" is a very common one for me. My
wife is a ballet teacher and choreographer, so she works evenings,
while I work days. In the evening I take care of my son, which is
lots of fun, but doesn't leave any evening time for the workshop.
Weekends tend to fill up with chores and family time, and during the
spring and fall, my wife needs my help out in the gardens as Mr.
Grunt Laborer. So, shop time is rare these days. I've gotten my son
interested at times in what I'm doing in the shop, and periodically
get him upstairs and he pounds nails or other such stuff while I get
a few minutes of work done, but no concentrated time recently. One
of these days. :-) Most of my building recently has been in another
medium, Legos. I never had them as a kid, and getting a couple of
sets for my son has introduced me to the great fun and creativity
possible with them. My interest has been how to use them to build
buildings. (my son likes space vehicles). My very primitive
galootish design sense comes out and it's interesting how you can
work with the set ratio of the bricks 5:6 and the somewhat limited
types of bricks to make some very interesting details and
decorations on buildings. I've been playing with inverted dental
moldings, and I'm currently trying to figure out how to create egg
and dart design. In some ways, I'm still finding an outlet for my
furniture and design interest while still spending time with my son
in his medium. That's pretty much my life these days. Not much
chance to get to fleas or garage sales or anteek mauls, so my tool
collection is pretty static. Not much time to do much woodworking,
though I did make a pretty nice rustic cane for my Dad that seems to
be working out well for him, and a couple of hiking staffs for
myself and my son. One of these days, probably when my son is no
longer as interested in doing stuff with me, or is more interested
and capable of doing stuff in the shop, I'll be able to get back
into the shop with a more concentrated focus. In the meantime, I've
still got the porch, my Legos, I mean my son's Legos, and an
occasional opportunity. One of these days.--------------------------------------
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Recent Bios FAQ