Hello there and welcome to the new website! I’ve been an enthusiastic home woodworker for a few years now and you know, I find it hard to remember a time when I wasn’t working with wood. If you’ve come here through the front page of my site you’ll know that I failed out off wood-shop in spectacular fashion in high school! Now far be it from me to put the blame on the education system, but quite honestly I think it was the way I was taught – it was just boring and uninspiring.

I recall standing in shop with 2 blocks of wood in either hand and being asked to make some useless shape out of them, and thinking to myself – why am I here again? All that changed however when, a few years later some kitchen shelving collapsed and I needed to get it repaired pronto. Now I don’t know if it’s just me, but if you’ve ever gone to the hardware store looking for some basic furniture – it is NOT cheap!! I about turned and walked right out of there partly because there was no way I was handing over my hard earned dollars for what looked like badly built flat pack, but also because I quite simply didn’t have the cash. We’ve all hit hard times and they were certainly not the easiest for me, but – I got home, went on-line to see what I could do and before long had a thought that for some reason hadn’t even entered my head up to that point – why don’t I build those shelves myself?

Well the rest, as they say is history, I struggled my way with that project but I got there eventually! Without being too dramatic, a flame had been lit, and over time I went searching out bigger projects – and with those I discovered greater people and resources which helped me to advance my skills and build some really heavy duty projects. I’ve travelled a long way since those days and occasionally I like to think back over how a seemingly bad turn of events actually, often leads to some of life’s greatest treasures. Woodworking is more than a hobby – it’s a craft, if you enjoy it as I do and you can persevere with the occasional setbacks, you will be rewarded 10 times over both financially and in personal fulfilment.

G. Parker