The End ?

The End ?

This piece started off on the floor of the workshop, just under the crosscut saw. I had just finished the build of the student bench, the top was clean and clear. I was thinking about going home, started the usual tidy up, clearing around the saws, up the corner of the shop and was picking up these offcuts, bin or...what.. The wall space up the corner was crying out for something, it's just a plain white wall.
And these offcuts are just beautiful, there are numbers on the ends of some, these were sorted into lengths and I used a black marker pen to note the usable lengths of each piece. Grey colour, from being outside at home under the temporary workshop ( remember that? ), some of the pieces still had evidence of the glue and plywood left from when it was staging, building platforms between the boats. A rusty old nail sticking out of one, a screw head in another and the timber yards red painted sort code, evidence of plenty of different uses.

I grab some newspaper, couple of sheets on the new bench and start gluing these piece's together, then as I'm doing this I decide to stamp my mark into one on the front and one was already on the back of another, from showing someone what the 'mark' looks like in some end grain.

So I'm now making an art piece that's going on the wall  up the corner, made from timber that has been around a while. When the timber was first delivered to Sealine some twenty something years ago, it could have been part of a boat, that could have gone anywhere in the world. Used as structural floor timbers, or framing behind a cabinet, strengthening timber in the fibreglass hull, it could have been anything...

And I've used all the good stuff for work at home, benches, the student bench, the metalwork bench, and the lathe bench. Now the ends are being used. So far zero waste apart from the dust from the saw and some shavings in the extractor from planing the wood down to make it smooth enough to use on a bench, we don't want splinters...not if I can help it.

Here it is in the corner of the workshop..

The End?

In all its rough glory...

Next time, a commissioned piece, the workshop classes have started...lots going on

I welcome comments and feedback, if you've got this far, then it's easy enough...

all the best

Jamie