* That I started woodworking ten years ago and discovered how much I really enjoy it.
* For the room in my house where I can set up a dedicated shop.
* A loving and very understanding wife who lets me spend hours in the shop on a sunny Saturday.
* Two healthy and curious boys who love to come into the shop and ask, “How can I help you, Daddy?”
* The loggers who do the tough job of cutting down trees to bring to market.
* The sawyers who skillfully cut the boards that we work with.
* The hardwood sellers who go out of their way to make sure I find the right wood for my upcoming project.
* My local library and the dedicated librarians who will scour the entire state of Florida’s library holdings to find some obscure woodworking book that’s been out of print for about a dozen years.
* The Internet with its scads of information just a mouse click away.
* Woodworkers such as John Lucas, Marc Spagnuolo, Doug Stowe and Tom Hintz who take the time to push valuable woodworking reviews and tutorials out to the masses from their websites – for free!
* Woodworking forums where I can post a heap of stupid questions, and the woodworkers from around the world who patiently answer each of them.
* Innovative companies – many of which are simple mom-and-pop organizations working out of their basements or garages – that find simple, elegant answers to vexing problems.
* Established companies such as Lee Valley, Rockler and Eagle America who value customer service above all and work hard to make sure I am a happy customer.
* eBay where I can find old woodworking tools that have been languishing in some barn in upstate New York for a century so I can get them sharpened and put back to good use.
* The folks at Google who developed Sketchup and still offer it for free.
* The woodworkers from around the world who have graciously agreed to be interviewed by me for the Woodworking Spotlights.
* Each of you for stopping by and reading my blog.
For those who will be celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow, have a very happy holiday with your family and friends. For those around the world who will wake up and go about your business just like any other day, I will raise my glass of wine and toast each of you.
Let’s face it, getting out into the shop is fun. As woodworkers, we take the money other folks would spend on golf clubs, fishing tackle or bowling balls and blow it on miter saws, hand planes and cabinet scrapers. We could spend hours standing in the same place in our shop using a belt sander to flatten a poorly glued end-grain cutting board (don’t ask, that’s what I was doing all day yesterday) and actually enjoy it.
Sometimes, a breath of fresh air is needed to keep everyone on their toes.
With her degree from San Diego State – along with an Associates of Applied Science degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology and a Masters of Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Technology – Amy unleashed her creativity. With her strong background in fine woodworking, joinery, metal work and upholstery, she has created some very interesting pieces developed from a combination of materials. “Wood on its own is challenging, as you know. But any time you add new and different materials to the mix the technical and aesthetic challenges are much greater. Marrying diverse materials requires a greater deal of sensitivity to transitions, textures, and balance. Of course there’s an additional learning curve to working with the new material, plus there are the physical aspects of the different materials to consider.”
Now a celebrity among woodworking circles, Amy says she hasn’t yet lost the luxury of walking down the street without being mobbed by adoring fans. Her family has been exceptionally supportive of her work, but her interest in woodworking did catch her family a bit by surprise. “I’d always been into typically girly stuff – fashion, make-up, boys you know, the usual. I remember one Christmas I totally threw my parents for a loop when a cordless drill was #1 on my wish list, and high-heeled boots, and lipstick were demoted to #2 and #3.”
What does the future hold for Amy? Her vision not surprising in the generation that has come of age with instant communication through the Internet is to keep an open dialogue with her viewers. “I’m interested in how people are incorporating greener practices, and the resulting pros and cons. I’d also love to know what your readers would like to see on TV. Are they satisfied with the old guard of TV woodworkers? Are they interested specific techniques, materials, and styles? Also, I’d love, love, love to hear from people with green, creative methods of re-using or recycling saw dust!”