Sam Wilson's Journal

In which I work on the catalogue for the workshop exhibition and do no woodworking but lots of thinking.

[Keywords: 2XXFM, dichotomy, InDesign, podcasts, radio, technology, University, Walking With Water, Woodworking, world wide web] [One comment] [Permanent link]

I can’t wait to get to work! I’ll avoid transport; I’ll dig the skips; I’ll code to my heart’s content (and no farther)!

[Keywords: dichotomy, focus, materials, reuse, shipping, Transport, Woodworking] [No comments] [Permanent link]

This morning I came into the workshop really wanting to work on something, but I couldn’t really think what. I pulled out a rough sawn piece of blackwood that was left over from my table, sharpened up my plane, and set to work making shavings. I didn’t have an aim of making anything at all, [...]

[Keywords: flattening, Joseph Whitworth, planing, woodwork] [No comments] [Permanent link]

This morning I began a boxboard mock-up of a set of pidgeonholes for stationery; more on that later. I’m also thinking about the possibility of a bathroom cabinet. I am working again on my bookplate, this time with a view to printing in full colour (I am discovering just how little I know about Illustrator). [...]

[Keywords: bookplate, boring posts, prototyping] [No comments] [Permanent link]

This morning was my final assessment for the Diploma. I was getting pretty nervous beforehand, didn’t sleep much last night (for a host of other reasons, not just the assessment) and had had little to eat. As I moved my work downstairs ready to bump it in I thought how poor it looked next to [...]

[Keywords: art school, assessment, dovevtails, future plans, manifesto, woodwork technique, Woodworking] [No comments] [Permanent link]

To be in touch — in contact — with the wood is a wonderful thing; the dust, shavings and sweat blackening my hands; reveling in intimacy with the tree, giving part of myself in exchange for what I am making. Running my hand over the wood, sweeping the shavings off the bench with my skin, [...]

[Keywords: closeness, emotion, physicality, wood, woodwork] [No comments] [Permanent link]

In which I put little inlays over nail holes. Thus far today I have been installing little squares of inlay to cover the nail holes in the box sides. It’s fun work, quite exacting but calm and easy. I’m enjoying myself. I finished the inlaying just after lunch and moved on to planing grooves in [...]

[Keywords: box, inlaying, planing, woodwork] [No comments] [Permanent link]

I get back from the library and cheer up, but have a bit of bother with my plane iron.

[Keywords: planing, posture, sharpening, stock preparation, Tools, Woodworking] [No comments] [Permanent link]

An afternoon of a book, a cafe, a friend, much good talking and only a little work done. William Morris’ lectures on Art and Socialism from the last quarter of the 19th century kept me company in a juice bar in town this afternoon, but only for a short while before the noise got to [...]

[Keywords: decoration, quotations, William Morris, woodwork] [No comments] [Permanent link]

In which I wonder for a while if my work is crap, and then decide that it’s not.

[Keywords: ANU, door jamb, dovetails, glueless, PVA glue, treenails, Work] [No comments] [Permanent link]

What Fine Woodworking has to say about making small treenails or pegs for pinning joints.

[Keywords: Fine Woodworking magazine, technique, treenails, trunnels, Woodworking] [One comment] [Permanent link]

[Keywords: box, Making, visual diary, woodwork, Work] [No comments] [Permanent link]

The speed at which one is required to respond in various forms of a) long-distance communication, and b) woodworking. I have been thinking about the various forms of long-distance communication that are in common use, such as email, telephone, and snail mail, and in particular the length of time each gives one to respond to [...]

[Keywords: attention to process, communication, correspondence, email, sawing, slowing down, Speed, speed of response, time] [No comments] [Permanent link]

In which I bring my desk back to school to finish finishing it and then get it assessed. What a marvellous morning! I brought my desk back to school this morning to get it assessed next Monday; I walked here with it on my wheelbarrow. It’s not a long walk — an hour or so [...]

[Keywords: art school, Exploring, urban resistance, wheelbarrow] [No comments] [Permanent link]

I won’t fill you in on the background of anything; I have to start sometime, and it might as well be now. The box is coming along well, better this afternoon once I gave up for the time being trying to make A Thing to cut trunnels. I turned instead to getting the bottom finished: [...]

[Keywords: boxes, Making, Truth to Materials, woodwork] [One comment] [Permanent link]

After many weeks of thinking, scheming and proposing I have at last settled upon this blog form, and so must begin. Have I anything to say? Not much, but this morning Yanagi (yet again) gave me something to think about, and I think it worth sharing. “Crafts are of and for the great mass of [...]

[Keywords: art school, Reading, Soetsu Yanagi, The Unknown Craftsman, Woodworking] [No comments] [Permanent link]