A New Start

To blog, or not to blog… that is the question.

I’ve approached this numerous times in the past, some attempts more successful than others. Getting started at this is easy. Keeping it going is the hard part.

That said, I have good reasons to try again, as I’ll explain as I go along here.

At my core, I’m a Maker. Since I was a pre-teen my greatest interests always involved making things. I started out with classic Revel car and plane model kits and always enjoyed toys that involved building. Erector sets and Radio Shack electronic kits were always my first choice. In my early years I jumped from one thing to another: woodworking, screen printing, jewelry making, balsawood airplanes, fixing broken electronics, rock tumbling, drawing and many other skills. I didn’t realize it until much later, but I was really good at engineering, with an innate skill to fix and construct things.

Over the years I dabbled in many crafts, but one stood out in my teen years and initially led me on my career path. I was VERY good at drawing, which elicited the most attention from my teachers and peers. By the end of high school I was determined to become a fine artist. In a future post I’ll explain how that pursuit was diverted and how I ended up in my current career in computers as an IT Director. My biggest regret is that I didn’t pursue engineering in some form, which would have probably led to a more lucrative career.

Among all my interest over the years, woodworking became my favorite. Along with all the other skills I gained it all came together about 30 years ago when my young daughter wanted a dollhouse. I purchased a kit at a hobby store and over the next few years found I had a knack for making miniature furniture. That path was put aside for quite a while as my life path took a number of turns. About 15 years ago I finally got the opportunity to do serious woodworking when I was able to put together a workshop in my garage. Initially I made artisan cribbage boards and assorted woodworking. Then three years ago I made a 1/12 scale prototype for a piece of furniture I was designing and I rediscovered my talent for making miniatures.

Since then, I have found my calling in the world of dollhouse miniatures. With each of the several dozen works I have created so far my skills have increased as the pieces get more detailed and refined. I am beginning to get some recognition in the miniature community, and last week I had a dealers table in my very first dollhouse miniature show. Although I didn’t sell many pieces, it was inspirational and I have a new determination to work harder to increase my production for future shows.

However, about 7 weeks ago I had a near disaster when a fire broke out in my garage workshop. Thankfully I only lost a CNC machine, but as a result of the massive amount of toxic smoke it created everything in the garage had to be removed for cleaning and the drywall was ripped out. Currently I have an empty garage and plans to recreate the workshop of my dreams. I’m facing an enormous  amount of work in the coming months and hope to document the rebuilding as well as my efforts to steer my career path beyond my retirement in a few years.

My goal with this blog is to document my work, with the garage reconstruction and showing off my work. I also hope to offer tutorials on various skills regarding things I make.