Decisions of Children A retailer wanted a morning’s activity with children.Making children happy isn’t difficult; they love doing cool stuff. When given a choice of projects they apply assumptions passed on by their parents. It is fun to present them with a boy’s cliché, a girl’s cliché and a gender non specific alternative. They were presented…
Enthusiastic, beginning woodworkers look for a place to discover their skills. They read about traditional benches; material costs and required skills are both intimidating. Such great fulfilment can be had when woodworking that I hope the people to whom I talk feel encouraged to go out and experiment with their own creativity. How simply and…
Junk is stuff you have no use for. Here is a blade that was destined for land fill, so was the timber. Junk can be reclassified! The teeth have been ground smooth and the weight of the blade gives the table a nice stability. In making this there was a nice exploration of cutting compound…
Three Variations of the Same Theme There is a tradition in Melbourne secondary schools that has twelve year olds in their first woodwork lessons making a pencil case. Regardless of how ordinary the results may be, these things end up with magnificent decoration. During boring lessons they are canvas for expression of everything from undying…
Candle Sticks These candle sticks are my response to a gig at a conference for intellectually disabled people, Having a Say.Our activity was to involve ten attendees and their helpers. There were no requests for my work to follow any themes. Attendees could be dexterous, or not. Helpers may be anything from ex-tradesmen to multi-thumbed…
Inspired by a Grand-daughter Rites of passage require Grandma and Grandpa to stay overnight and be responsible parents again. We were responsible for a wondrous darling born at just 25 weeks, but now 20 months old, crawling with a formula 1 ego and on the brink of walking. Revisiting parenthood for 24 hours was a…