Hi!
The other day our Grandparents came up and our Grandpa organized and taught another woodworking day for us and some of our friends. He’s a carpenter and we’ve done a couple of these woodworking days before. This time we had three of our friends come over and join us!
The night before we also went out to see the first 2 episodes of season 5 of The Chosen in the theatre! Us and our Grandparents love that show and it was fun to see those episodes for the first time with them!
The woodworking day was a success! In the past we’ve had them outside and in the garage but because of the weather we did this one downstairs. We used two saws, the bandsaw that our Grandpa gifted us and the new scroll saw he brought when they came up, which is now going to be ours too! That is very generous of him!
This time we made phone stands! I really liked how mine turned out! I love the wood, which was walnut, and I purposefully chose to put that groove in front because Grandpa mentioned how some people fill stuff like that in with some sort of color and I really liked that idea!
Overall, I think it was our best one yet, we were all pretty independent on our projects, it was nice to have both saws going and that we could all do them on our own and for the most part I enjoyed doing it downstairs. It was fun to hang out with our friends too!
What’s something you liked about it (and why)? I liked getting the taste of a fun, creative, worthwhile woodworking project that I was excited about. I’m not sure how much I’ll use the phone stand but I think I’ll use it in the kitchen sometimes and it was really fun to make! I liked working on something with a wood that I liked, plus having that idea of painting in the groove, getting to have some creativity on where I wanted to drill the holes and how much I wanted to round the corners, having some independence while using the saws or working on it in other ways and then also just working on an item that I think I’ll use and that I really like the look of. Because it’s super rewarding, I like the creativity involved in it and the independence of it. I haven’t had as much fun or reward with any other woodworking project I’ve done, mainly because I’m not super interested in the item and the look of the wood. We were all pretty independent in how we wanted ours to turn out and in a lot of the actual making of the project.
What’s something you disliked about it (and why)? It was challenging at a certain point, when we were all in the thick of our projects, at least for me, to be efficient because several of us needed Grandpa’s help, or a tool that others were using, or the tool was all the way across the table where you couldn’t reach it or people were in your way since the space was just kind of tight. It wasn’t great because we’d need to wait for a little bit for Grandpa or for a certain tool or something. It wasn’t that bad, we’d only have to wait for a little while but that was still a little tricky. I wish it would have been more efficient because that’s more enjoyable and easy.
What was your biggest takeaway or lesson? Probably my biggest takeaway was actually enjoying the process of and the outcome of a woodworking project. I think that could lead to some more in the future! But it was also interesting hearing Grandpa talk for awhile before we started any of the project. He made a big pitch on how you don’t need to go to college, you can make a really good living in the trades. I don’t think I’d want to work in the trades but a big lesson for me was seeing how you can make good money doing what you love and just seeing this example of someone who loves their work and made a good living out of it. I hope to do that someday.
What is something you’re curious to learn more about as a result of this experience? I have not used our bandsaw since we got it here, and it was cool to get more confident about that and the scroll saw. I also liked learning some more techniques and stuff. I’m excited to learn about more projects I could do! I’ve never been super fascinated or interested in woodworking but after today I am curious and looking forward to finding some possible projects I could do and then working on them! It’d have to be a project that would be worth it, but it’s rewarding when it is and when it turns out well!
Thanks for reading!
Lucy