The greatest gift from a teacher is success, for success fertilises the desire for more success and nourishes self esteem. A student, typically, is the hardest assessor of their own work. So, the creation of work where students feel their own success is the art of teaching. This piece of work began with the donation of…
My friends were impressed by the notion that our train’s carriages could be hooked together and towed around. It failed, however, in that each woodworker could only take home a single carriage; they had nothing to tow. At the end of the train project, and experiencing a flush of overconfidence, I asked staff for inspiration. They requested a fire…
Footstools It is a permanent source of inspiration to me that problems posed to woodworkers have no single correct response. If asked to make a footstool, what would a valid response look like? If a footstool is a small flat platform supported 100 to 300mm above the floor, how many ways could I make it?…
This project was perfect for batch production; the pieces are simple and can be cut in multiples. BUT, the coolest part of all is that when it was done we put our carriages together and created a train of inspiring proportions. We used our usual techniques of dowel hammered into holes that are 0.5mm too small….
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…
Simple Machines Blogging takes time and my recent past has involved a sick wife and a new grandchild. Suburban life is rich with texture. It can make blogging take a back seat. Following is a report of a nice afternoon in my shed with my son! My disabled friends haven’t been ignored, the next blog…
Good Ideas Don’t Need to be Complicated Serving Tray For an object to complete the journey from initial musings to touchable reality requires a certain fidelity, on my part, to the original idea. Discouragements take the form of excessively complex prototypes. It is difficult to let simplicity rule. The journey of the serving tray couldn’t be shorter….
For Whom Do We Make? The stuff we make involves many interested parties. There are: the makers, staff who help, managers of the centre, recipients of the objects, et al. Given the positive power of enthusiasm, it is good to spread that good feeling as widely as possible. When the makers make more than they need,…
The act of making is its own end! My friends may comprehend nothing of the object they have created, but are always richer for having been engaged in the act of making it. With little prior experience of working in disability services, I had no means of judging the progress of a lesson. More experienced people than…
My friends wouldn’t stop playing with this toy. For me, that is enough evidence to call the project a success. Most of the workers in my group do not interact easily with other people, so their play didn’t consist of shooting each other. They found enormous satisfaction in the challenge of loading a ball and launching it…