Woodworking

Woodworking

Peace. Serenity. A readiness to learn something new and what I figured to be, exciting. Through the years many activities have made me wonder what it would be like to do them. None however kept that initial spark of creativity flowing. Not until my husband and I were talking about woodburning. To my utter surprise one day while in Walmart, I noticed that in the craft aisle that they had a wood burning set for sale. It took some doing, but finally my husband relented and with that my first woodburning set was bought.

Sure, all you could really do with it, was burn things into the wood. But hey, it was a small step in the right direction for me. The way that words, or names rather, came to life as the smell of wood burning filled my senses, was like nothing I had ever done before. Letting my hands move shaping the letters as the blackness of the burnt wood came to life filled me with joy. Not even singing has filled me with such enjoyment, and if you knew how much I love to sing, you would know that this was indeed something.

After getting the hang of just woodburning, other ideas came to my mind, and with the help of my husband, these ideas began to bear fruit. With a router now in hand, the letters and shapes now had depth to them. Instead of the wood on the top being burnt, now the inside could be. But as I started on this new idea, others came. What if I added color to wood and just burnt the top, how would that look? So many neat ideas, but could I do them?

It does not matter how long it takes from start to finish on these projects of mine, the peace and joy that I find in the solitude is well worth it. Starting things has always been easy, but typically distractions pop up and lead me astray from what I am currently working on. Be it family or my pets, there are times that things just do not tend to go my way. But out there, in the heat, working on something that brings serenity, even briefly, is more than I can ask for.

Of course, mistakes are often made, because try as I may, I am far from perfect. Yet, even in the mistakes, no matter how big or small, there is beauty. Errors are human nature, and when trying so hard to make things aesthetically beautiful as you want, things happen. Learning from them is something not to be taken granted of. They teach you in ways that being perfect all the time, just can’t. In this crazy world that we live in, sometimes I think how better it could be if everyone could learn from the past and live for the future that is being written for you.

Now, a scroll saw has come into the mix and my next aim is to learn how to cut the letters or shapes out of the wood and just burn the wood using our torch. Along side of this, my two newest objectives are learning how to mix and pour resin and learning how to use the Cricut cutting machine to do my own stencils and t-shirts. Learning new things keeps me going at times, as does allowing my creativity to blossom as it has never done before. Hopefully, in time even more ideas come and figure out just how to do it. One day, perhaps, the creative way that my designs are done, will put a smile on someone else’s face, outside of my own.