the first project
where it began…
Salt Lake City, Utah. 2018. That’s the where and the when. As far as the why is concerned, the need to build something from wood simply took hold of me.
I was standing in a Deseret Industries thrift shop, holding an oak paper towel holder- the kind you might hang underneath a kitchen cabinet. Something about the shape of it spoke to me. I did not have much in the way of tools at home to work with, but I knew this wood needed to be transformed into something different. In fact, I knew with absolute certainty it needed to become a keepsake box. I have no other way to explain this than it was simply a moment of pure inspiration. (Please bear in mind that the stress I was under at work had my brain nearly scrambled at this moment.) This wood was asking to be upcycled into a decorative box. The material was perfectly flat, and had square edges, so I figured it was already halfway there. I spent the two dollars and brought the thing home, excited to make some sawdust!
After living in Madison, WI for many years, the bizarre arc of my professional career had transported me from the Midwest to the Utah high desert. That very same career path also found me working seven days a week, and living in a full time, high anxiety mode. I was near a breaking point, and taking on a creative project as a stress response was bound to happen.
I have always kept something artistic to obsess over in the periphery of my day to day. I have been an executive chef and restaurant manager for 3 decades now, and I am always on the hook creatively at work. It would take a whole other blog to delve into that madness. (Seriously considering that.) Having another creative outlet outside work has helped me stay sane over the years. Pouring myself into a project lets me detach from my work life for a moment. I was in my mid-forties when the wood working bug bit me. It makes sense. My father was an engineer. He taught me much about how things are put together.
I was living in a first floor apartment directly above my landlord. She was in the basement apartment with her 2 dogs. Every sound, every footstep on the hardwood floors in my apartment, echoed through the duct work in that place. Not really the ideal workshop situation. Not to mention my tools at the time. But I had to do this.
fine woodworking toolkit circa 2018
I didn’t know where to begin, so I started with a sketch. After some measurements I quickly realized I did not have enough wood. I brought home an oak plank from the big, orange home improvement store to give myself some more material to work with. Then I spent the next few weeks breathing life into the project. Step by step. Joint by joint. One cut at a time. An hour here and there. I watched a YouTube video. I tried some dovetails. They were terrible! I found another woodworking video. I tried some dowel joinery. That came out much better. Little by little a sturdy form began to take shape.
Due to my living arrangement I had to be very cautious that my landlord was out of the building before any work commenced. The painful squeaking noise from my cheap, plastic miter box and hardware store hand saw was comically loud, and greatly amplified, in my wood floored work shop. The creaking, sawing squeaking was not nearly as comical, however, as the side-splitting hilarity of running my electric rotary tool, with a router bit attachment, in that same chamber of echoes!
trick noisemaker
Because of my interest in jewelry making I had acquired a rotary tool for myself somewhere along the way. It was definitely the most sophisticated piece of equipment I owned at the time. As the box build project progressed- very much a ‘design on the fly’ experience- I came to a point where I needed to incorporate a rounded over rabbet into the design- a contoured edge detail the lid would fit over, to snugly close the box.
fancy woodworking rabbet
