Well, we’ve just passed the One Year anniversary of redtopworkshop.com, the formal starting point for my furniture making endeavor. It has been a wondrous year for me and I thank you all for your support, critical comments, praise and patronage. What follows is a brief re-cap and a reflection on growth.

the Website

It seems establishing a website is the precondition for starting anything these days. And so as 2020, the year of my professional retirement, waned I found myself anxious to start anew and thinking a lot about website content and design. I researched a few platform options, discussed the matter with two knowledgeable sons and ultimately chose Square Space as my new entrée to the world. I have to say everything is made easy during set-up, and within a couple months post-launch my weekly fiddling with formats subsided and a comfortable routine for content creation was established. I soon realized that, rather than a transactional online marketplace, I merely needed a space to advertise my product and post a blog to generate/sustain interest. Even the “basic” Square Space package provides more than I require, but it is a nice product, and I plan to remain there.

I particularly value the blog element of the website. It’s fun to write, and I tell myself that customers also enjoy knowing the backstory of their new possession. My belief is that over time they will appreciate what the piece means to them, but they will start out with an understanding of how it came to be and what it has meant to its maker. That’s not nothing. Now, my use of the term “blog” is knowingly inaccurate, for most often the posts under this heading read like woodworking “articles”. That’s okay by me. I am seeking the folks who read blogs, even if they might release a “sigh” mid-way through the long ones. Only scientists and other professionals go online to read articles. Woodworking professionals might rightly consider these narratives to be naive or even self-evident. Nevertheless, I would hope they find them entertaining and I welcome their critical comments, but I’m hunting the larger herd. A writer needs to consider his or her audience and I imagine mine as ‘blog reader-types interested in furniture’ and, in particular, that subset who possess a few tools that they occasionally use to make things. You know who you are.

Anyway, after a couple of authentic, get-to-know-you blog posts I told the story of The Sumo Table from start to finish, and it felt right. Just as with most “first attempts”, re-reading that article today induces a cringe, but I value it for the door it has opened. Now, I wrote that one in retrospect once the furniture piece had been finished, but the next 12 Project stories (beginning with The New Sled) were told contemporaneous with the work. I believe this simple change in method has made me a better woodworker and has also enhanced the woodworking experience for me. I now spend some time each morning working on the latest blog, re-writing earlier passages and recounting what was about to occur in the workshop. Describing the work beforehand makes you focus on both the details and the sequence of operations. (It’s kind of like formulating a new hypothesis and then planning the proper laboratory experiment.) Reworking this text the following morning helps me to learn. Reflecting on what went well and what went awry, comparing these facts with the first written draft, and then correcting the story accordingly, promotes the recognition and retention of lessons. It also adds vitality to the work experience.

the Projects

Making the transition from hobbyist to full time woodworker really shortens the lifespan of a Project. And having a full day to devote to one’s work also requires a new approach to time management. It’s all good. Happily, the Projects have emerged with a better-than-expected flow and variety. In 2021 I was able to complete 6 items for our own home & garden, in addition to a couple of extra fixtures for the workshop. I also finished 8 commissioned pieces for friends and family members. I don’t know how these metrics will compare to future output but it felt like a productive year. A fun year, too! My favorite was the Spirits Cabinet, but they are all special, of course. Nothing is more satisfying than delivering new furniture to a new owner for the new purpose that had so consumed my thoughts over the previous month. It warms the heart and goose pimples the skin.

Act IV, Scene 1

Upon reflection I can state that I have rarely learned more in a single year than I did in 2021. To be sure, comparable spurts were experienced during my first year of life (1961), that first year of graduate school (1983) and the beginning of fatherhood (1992), but that’s it. I hope it continues full bore until I become a craftsman. That is the ending I have in mind for Act IV. In addition to being considered a good person, scientist and father I would like to be considered a good craftsman. John Ruskin, the great 19th century thinker and founding member of the Arts & Crafts movement, asserted that a “craftsman” is more than an amateur and, just as important, less than a virtuoso. Ruskin’s controversial stance was that “craftsmanship” - the work produced from this middle ground - was both needed and valued by a public unable to appreciate outputs from the extrema. I agree. A well-intentioned amateur still lacks the ability to truly satisfy, and the fully capable virtuoso is consumed by details of perfection beyond the masses’ desire. A craftsman satisfies desires. That’s what I am trying to do.