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Paul Sellers' Blog

Is it arriving or the journey that counts?

25-Jul-10 22:04 | Paul Sellers (administrator)
I had lots of visitors to Penrhyn Castle last week. It's holiday time so families enjoy coming through the castle workshop and most of them enjoy talking to us and watching us work. I usually demonstrate dovetail cutting for them as I have done for years and still love to show them how we make our furniture. 
Wood is a wonderful medium to work with and most will never experience what I feel. After 45-years it's never grown old for me. I no longer wonder if what I make will work out, or worry about not being able to do something. I was telling my students last week that I recall a point when something changed for me. It was a shift that took place unbeknown to me really. Ever since I was a boy I impatiently wanted to see what I was making in its finished state. That was where my joy was. Well, some years ago, I realised that I had come to a place in my work where the whole process of working and the work I worked on was just as enjoyable as seeing my finished pieces. Thats' the place I enjoy now. So, slow down, feel the wood as it works under the plane and the chisel, use the saw with sensitivity and spokeshave the wood feeling the way it sweeps the coves and bends. Relax a bit and enjoy the process!
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