Is it worth it?

In a way, woodworking is an insane hobby. Instead of passing free time at leisure activities, you end up spending your weekends and even vacations working in your shop. For most of us, you never have enough tools, and you can never afford as many as you'd like. The wood itself is expensive, it takes a lot of looking to find good pieces, and it can be really cantankerous as you work with it.

On a recent weekend I wandered around my shop a bit, spent a little time hanging a newly arrived saw, and smelled the scent of wood in the air. Then I went in the house, sat down in my work nook (to work on this page, actually), and looked around at the wood glowing in the beautiful early afternoon winter sun. Over the course of several years and in between house remodeling projects, I built all the furniture in my nook with my own hands from maple, oak, poplar, pine, and just a bit of walnut and mahogany.

The nook fits me perfectly. At least for me, it is worth it.

The photograph hanging on the wall above the monitor, which you can't see very well because of the reflection of our brightly sunlit yard coming through the window, is called Landscape in Sandstone. It is by a friend, Tom Andrews of Wildland Art, who lives up the mountain a bit and has for years traveled to and photographed some of the wildest places still left in the U.S.

I never tire of looking up at this view into Paria Canyon in Arizona's Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness; it gives me a serene respite from the busyness that takes place on my computer screen, and even after many years I continue to discover new details in it.

We're fortunate to enjoy three of Tom's prints that are hanging in our home, also including Bigtooth Maples from Zion National Park in Utah and Aspens on Deer Mountain from Rocky Mountain National Park just up the road here in Colorado, which is hanging over our big Lyons Sandstone fireplace.

The painting you can see on the monitor itself was done by my beloved, Garima, and is featured on the cover of her book, Kitchen Botany. Her painting helps nudge me toward a more cheerful place whenever I start and finish a session on the computer.

I made a special maple frame for the actual painting with fully rounded edges and corners to give it a softness that matches the feel of the painting, which brings its good cheer into our lives daily.

« Sources