sutton046

For much of the period 1983 - 1994, I was working as a woodcraftsman in the beautiful Augusta-Margaret River area of Western Australia. We lived in Augusta, the most southwesterly town on the Australian continent, just 5 miles north of Cape Leeuwin, where the Indian Ocean meets the Southern Ocean. Over that time, I did a huge variety of cabinetmaking, joinery work, furniture making and carpentry for many people throughout the district and even around the world via gallery sales and commissions. While we moved 200 miles north to Perth at the start of the new millennium, I still have a strong connection with Augusta, as my parents still live there as do my eldest son with his wife and family. Most of the family gathered at Augusta for the Christmas/New Year period again this year, so I was back in town for a few weeks over that time. As usual, on a Saturday morning I went along to the Leeuwin Lions Club's big Op Shop to check out the bargains along with ...

While the main festival seasons for The Joy of Wood are in Autumn and Spring, there are a few festival gigs which fall at other times. Last Saturday was one of those. At the invitation of Stirling City Council, we conducted a woodworking actvity for kids at the Kids Kerfuffle in the park at Jackadder Lake, Woodlands, in Perth, Western Australia. This event was part of their Summertime Arts Festival.  A nice quiet start... it didn't stay like this for long! The park was just oozing with kids all day, and as usual our Joy of Wood woodworking activity was a very popular thing all day. The festival organisers had provided us with a 9m x 3m marquee, with lots of space all round to enable us to spill out in all directions, which we did of course! We had out 8 benches of various heights, with 27 hammers across them, plus the Sawing Station with 4 saws on it. It was flat out all day, keeping Megan and I very busy as we kept an eye on the young Sawyers, maintained the wood supply, and...