2022 Accomplishments in the Workshop

 This is the first year I am doing this.  Fortunately, I keep a woodworking notebook so that helps me recall what I did.  Without a notebook, I'd likely forget half of the things I've done.  Mostly I write for myself to consolidate my thoughts and to provide my family and friends (now and in the future .... look at great grandpa's chest of drawers ...) a way to see what I am up to.  Admittedly, Instagram (joeleonetti1@instagram.com should anyone be interested) is a bit more visual but I like the longer word format here.

I spent approximately 400 hours woodworking this year.  Toss in holidays, and other family commitments, I am happy with that number.  Forty of those hours were spent taking a class at the Port Townsend School from a dovetail class by Laura Mays and 45 hours were spent taking an evening class at Mount Diablo Adult Education (MDAE) evening class.  Both were great experiences and I look forward to more classes in the future.  In fact, I'm enrolled in a class starting next week at MDAE.  I probably did more woodworking in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid keeping us at home.  In 2022, we went out more and I'm glad that life is getting back to normal.

I spent a lot of time making boxes.  This was intentional.  I think my dovetails have been decent, but I wanted to get better.  The easiest way to get better at something is doing more of it.  As such, I took a dovetail class.  It helped me sort out the various ways one can mark, cut, pare, etc.  I think I am in homing in on what gives me the best tight gap free joints.  I will blog more about this in 2023 as I have a project in mind with lots of dovetails.  The one thing I really like about making these boxes is that they make great gifts to give to others.  I get a lot of joy in giving away some of the things I make.  Though I plan to spend a lot of time making in the future, I don't plan on selling items.  I'd rather make items for me and my friends and family.  In doing so, the hours spent don't matter to me as much.  If I have to sell, then I would naturally want to covert that to a hourly wage.  I like my day job and it pays me a good wage.  Happy to stay an amateur and not make a living from woodworking.

There are two boxes worth a bit more elaboration.  I made the Paul Seller's keepsake box.  The joints weren't as tight as I would like (made it early in the year before my class on dovetails).  The biggest humbling experience is I made it with Spanish cedar which is quite brittle, and I crushed the box quite badly.  I was able to make it look better with some inlay.  My daughter is happy with it and that is good enough for me.  The other box is a big Baltic birch plywood box for my nephew for subwoofers in his car.  What makes it challenging is just the sheer size.  It should be done very soon.

I also make a couple of "tools."  I finished both a long spatula for my wife and a 12" bow saw from a Tools for Working Wood kit.  Also around the house, I made a nice Krenov cabinet for some more storage space in the house, a stool for my young daughter to sit on while eating at the coffee table, a fancy looking antipasta board for my wife (she loves inlay so it has it),and some cherry kitchen drawer dividers.  Two other projects included some band sawn reindeer for a donation to the local wood school and a Paul Sellers style genuine Mahagony clock for donation to our local church's crab feed and auction in Feb 2023.

All in all I'm happy with what i got done.  Always feel like I never get enough time to get anything done.  When I look back over the year, I can't complain.  I've got some exciting plans for 2023 and will talk about those in my next post.