Monday 13 February 2012

Let the adventure begin!

Welcome!! While plying my hands at a variety of, what some would say, different crafting disciplines, I found myself searching for a means to share my successes and failures. I've never been one to have any success in keeping any sort of diary or even a cohesive set of notation. So, this could get interesting!

Over the years I have dabbled in several domains of crafting: Carpentry, leather-work, chainmaille, jewelery-making, to name my more recent exploits. All involve a level of creativity, but it's the completion of a project with my own two hands that really makes these hobbies satisfying. I was introduced to woodworking at the solid age of 4, in my grandfather's home workshop. A hobby carpenter himself, I watched him bring to life countless decorative and functional pieces, often having my little hands in the projects as well (a bent nail here, or just a hammer dent there). As I  grew, so did my contribution to the pieces emerging from the workshop. The joy of bringing a project to life in the warm pieces of lumber is something that is deeply rooted in me. Today, my grandfather's shop is little more than a storage area for a plethora of tools, many older than me. His advancing age has made his eyes unreliable, and his hands too unsteady to work the material he loves so much. But I still visit that well-known place for advice on my projects, to borrow some specialty tool, or to just look over previous completed projects fondly. It his with a picture of my grandfather and I working together on the wall of my rag-tag shop that I hope someday to develop the skill he tried to impart to an impatient grandchild.

As I grew up, my interests branched out to more unconventional hobbies. My high school years brought about a fascination with Medieval arms and armour. Chainmaille weaving took up a great deal of my 'study' time in high school, and the completion of my first 'Armour T-Shirt' did nothing to dim my interest. Leather-work came next, naturally, to compliment the steel ring armour I had made. After all, there are some instances when chainmaille is just impractical!

Some day....one day...I will put my family and their patient smiles to rest by building my dream workshop, which will included a coal fire blacksmith forge. Blacksmithing has always been a dream of mine, possibly because I have been repeatedly told I'm built like one, or more likely, because my great-grandfather was a blacksmith and wheelwright in Nova Scotia. Either way, I will have my forge!!

So! This will be an on-going chronicle of my trials and errors with many hand-crafted projects, and I sincerely hope someone, somewhere will take enjoyment out of it. Because typing to myself repeatedly might start to affect my frame of mind after a while!

Cheers!

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