I have been wanting to re-focus my blogging, and return to writing only about my woodworking. I’ve set up a wiki, and installed a new instance of WordPress, and tried all sorts of technical things, but just don’t seem to be able to get the flow of the thing, and actually get any writing done. So I’m back here, and shall endevour to re-focus this blog back to its beginnings: By Heart and Hand.
That’s what I called the thing when I first started it (when I was at art school in Canberra in 2003) and the phrase was meant to represent something about how I work wood by hand (I mean, using only hand tools), and that the processes involved are only perfected through learning them “off by heart” — in that one’s body must learn how to do these things, one’s heart and soul.
And that’s what I want to get back to doing, and to writing about. I’ve got my nice little workshop up and running now (and have turned out a few little pieces, mainly for Christmas presents and so I can’t yet post anything about them here, lest some recipient reads this; not that they are likely to), and I just need to get back into the swing of working the wood and having the time to stop — mid mallet-swing if need be — and write about what I’m doing.
It’s not all about hacking away at bits of wood and trying to make them fit together, you see. It’s actually far more about one’s attitude and the feel of calm beauty that decends (from the heavens?) when the sweet saw is sawing smoothly and swiftly. As it were. More of that later, from the dust of the bench.