Monday 25 February 2008

My very own carpenter

Not Jesus... my husband. Jeff's woodworking hobby started soon after we married and realised we needed some bookcases to fit our combined collection of books (which has since multiplied many times over). Jeff asked a friend (who was also the photographer at our wedding) for some lessons in woodworking and Jeff's been selling Batman comics on ebay to finance his hobby ever since. Jeff has just finished his first commissioned and purchased item, a secure box for students at his Theological College to post their assignments into. (Actually, we sold Jeff's first two bookcases to the couple who bought our house in Darwin, but that was after we'd had several years of good use from them already). Jeff has built at least four bookcases, the cot that all our children have slept in as babies, our change table, student and staff pigeonholes for the Theological College, a magazine rack for Jeff's stepfather. He hopes to be able to make me a desk one day, and his major dream is a new dining table and possibly even chairs. His most recent works have been getting more decorative as he has finely tuned his skills and purchased ever more expensive tools.

So here is his latest effort:
The darker wood is recycled jarrah, from a neighbour who was cutting down and throwing out the wood from their old verandah. Jeff removed bent and rusty nails, cut the posts into planks, which he joined together with biscuits, planed and planed and planed, and later sanded and sanded and sanded.

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