Thursday 11 July 2013

Have break, have a kit kat.

Its been three weeks since the course ended and I've been spending my time as a fully fledged wood worker finishing up the commission I got at the Exhibition and the bedside cabinet project. Its been a weird transformation from student to designer maker. The Monday after term ended, it was right back into the workshop to commence work on a myriad of projects, except this time we're expected to know all the answers and fix all our problems ourselves. Scary.

Completed bedside cabinet
A peek inside

Making a second copy of Tron hasn't been easy. The good thing about making something twice is you get to avoid any mistakes from the first time around and make little improvements to the design and process, making the process a lot more efficient. Which, if you are going to do this for a living, makes up for the fact that its a lot less exciting. Sadly, things haven't gone that well on Tron 2 and its ended up taking just as long, with more problems than the first one! When making a project, you bring to bear all your skill, knowledge and experience to try and avoid as many pitfalls as you can, hopefully resulting in a beautiful finished piece. But sometimes, despite your best efforts, wood just doesn't quite behave the way it should (defying all logic and sense!). Frustrating, but perhaps this is what makes it all the more rewarding when it does come together.

Tron 2 looking exactly like...Tron 1
I also haven't forgotten about the little space invader project I was toying with pre-Exhibition. I'm pleased to say these cute hand-made wall cabinets are now all done, in collaboration with the awesome and talented John Nicolson (https://www.facebook.com/jnfurniture), and are available to purchase (enquire within).

We come in peace
Cute and useful


Close up

I've now come to the end (really) of my time here in Scotland. Its difficult to talk (and think) about going out and facing the big blue yonder, so I'm going to leave you with a parting video which shows briefly how I've spent the last 9 months. Its been incredible.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KC--uaCbzYg&list=UU0SutKo7TsU9zETaqxhECUQ
See you all on the other side.