I suppose an introduction is in order...

For the foolish few who happen to stumble across this blog, you'll most likely want to know who and what I'm doing here. It's simple - I don't really have anything else to do.

OK, maybe there's more to it than that. I love wood. I love making things from wood. The process of taking a raw piece of limber and crafting it into something usable, be it functional or decorative... The satisfaction is beyond belief. It's all about the journey. The old saying about the destination not being as important as the journey was never more true for me as when I began this obsession.

Which begs the question "How did this all start for you?"

I always loved making things with my hands. My favorite toys when I was a kid were Legos, Tinker Toys, Erector sets, and the like. I loved building plastic model kits: cars, planes, tanks, robots... it didn't matter.

I eventually grew out of that phase (or so I thought) and took all the art classes I could in high school. I wanted to draw comic books - one of my other passions. Thankfully, I realized in my senior year that I simply didn't have the dedication to be a college art student. Still, I gained a sense of design and appreciation that I'd not have had otherwise.

Through my 20's and part of my 30's, I was involved in Games Workshop tabletop games. To over-simplify: I made war with little army men. While the games were fun, it was painting the miniatures that I enjoyed. It wasn't long before I was entering my figures into painting contests and winning them. I couldn't have done half of what I did without the basic art fundamentals I learned in high school. I eventually fell away from the gaming part of the hobby and concentrated on just painting.

As with all things, the painting interest passed. I'd probably still be doing it were it not for my wife. For Christmas 2007, she got me a Dremel set. That's all it took: one lonely Dremel. I almost immediately put down the brushes and dove into the deep end of the power tool pool. I've now taken over the old storage room in the basement to use as my workshop. Despite all of the dust collection and air filtration I've put it, the basement still gets covered in a fine layer of sawdust.

So it's all her fault. I get to remind her of that whenever she starts to complain about it.

I'll be posting some work in progress pictures of whatever I'm working on. When I get another digital camera, that is. My old one gave up the ghost about 6 weeks ago. Despite the hints, nobody got me one for Christmas, so I'll have to slog it out to Best Buy or Wal-Mart for another.

So what is it that I actually make?

Give it a bit and I'll show ya....