Of Carpenters

There's just something about working with wood, the process of turning a living tree into a useful or beautiful object using your hands and a few tools. There is a certain connection with nature in the process. The smell of the shaved and sanded wood, the smoothness of a finely sanded surface as you run your hand across it searching for areas of roughness to even out. The weight of the dense hardwood in your hands. Substantial, durable.


Working with wood is a mind-freeing activity. The kind of activity you can engage in as the hours slip by and day turns to night without your notice. Your attention is captured by the wood.


There is time to think when you work with wood. There is the buzz of a power tool, like white noise, blocking out the world. There is the repetitive stroking of a block plane or the gritty dragging of sandpaper, back and forth. There is the smell of newly planed wood shavings and of tung oil. There is the muffled softness of a workshop floor covered in discarded shavings.


Sometimes in our too-busy world we need to find an escape, a solitude, a meditation. For me it has been my art. The hours fly by. For others, carpentry is that vehicle they use to escape inside for a while, completely focused on the work at hand. What do you do to find that place of solitude and meditation in your life?

My walking stick. Shawn made this lovely stick with its serpentine, wood burned designs for me out of tiger maple. It is as smooth as glass and almost too beautiful to use, but since it is maple it wears well and is much more than a showpiece.

Walking stick detail. I still need to add a cord through the hole. A cord twisted around the wrist provides security against loosing it down a slope while hiking!

In Shawn and Earle's workshop a blizzard of shavings all but obscure a wooden ruler that belonged to my father. I love the mellow hues of the aged wood with its worn patches and faded markings.

Beautiful maple curls. Shawn took all three of these shots of shavings as part of his photography class last year.

A lovely, wooden rosette!

Joseph was a carpenter. Jesus, before he began his ministry, was a carpenter. A humble profession, yet valued and connected to the earth. I have been reading a fictional story about Joseph and Mary. I am gaining great insight into life during that time period. The story is touching and the characters come to life. I am about two-thirds of the way through the book and am eager to finish, even though I know the story already! If you are interested in such a story, a story of a carpenter and his young bride, take a peek at Two From Galilee. It makes good Advent reading.