Steve Erwin

I spend the day sitting in front of a computer designing and building websites that will get thrown away and rebuilt within 3 years. Nothing on the internet lasts. The technologies change every day and you have to be plugged in to keep pace with it.

Awhile back, my brother helped me finish my basement into a home theater / family room and I caught the woodworking bug.

Creating objects of function and beauty for the home has become one of the most satisfying experiences in my life.

With each new project I try to add at least one new skill to challenge myself so that I'm always improving. Always learning, always thinking, always creating problems to solve.

I can't say I'm self-taught.

* My brother taught me how to use power tools safely.
* My parents and grandparents taught me the value of a strong work ethic in everything I do.
* Norm Abram taught me that big projects are just a series of small steps connected together.
* Roy Underhill taught me that woodworking can be a soulful activity and that treating a project like a factory assembly line robs the maker of the joy of making.
* Fine Woodworking Magazine and Popular Woodworking Magazine taught me the importance of buying the best tools you can afford and how to use and care for them.
* Paul Sellers taught me that a healthy dose of practicality and common sense can go a long way toward increasing my enjoyment of this hobby. If it works for you, it works.
* Jacob Abbott (author of the Work for Boys books) taught me that just because it's old doesn't mean it's obsolete.
* Gustav Stickley (and his store's showroom) taught me how to build furniture in the Arts & Crafts style.
* Christopher Schwarz taught me many things: that hand tools are safer than, and can be faster and more accurate than power tools, how and why to use them, that I don't need every tool to make every object, and that "Aesthetic Anarchy" is the term for what I've been feeling all along.

There have been several other teachers along the way, though never in a formal classroom setting. Peter Follansbee, Mary May, David Charlesworth, Rob Cosman, Peter Galbert, Frank Klausz, Ron Hock...and on and on.... they've all lent a hand in my woodworking in one degree or other.

-- I've been creating problems to solve since I was born. - http://honeydowoodworking.blogspot.com