The week has been filled with meetings, designing and the preparing of endless quotes. While I stay very busy, at the end of the day there’s not much progress on my projects in the shop. It’s all part of owning and running our own business. There are some pretty cool and fun jobs in the planning stage. As things firm up and physical work starts they will undoubtably show up here in various stages. At times it feels like a roller coaster. It’s a good thing I LOVE roller coasters!

Each project seems to go through the same various stages. The initial discussion is full of hope... big things imagined... anything is possible. Reality steps in as finite budgets and preliminary designs are explored. Most times the design goes through multiple revisions and tweaks. The struggle is to not lose the original idea. The balance is to keep the design fresh and yet still fulfill the purpose of the project. While revisiting the design often makes the project better, sometimes things can fall off the rails in the process. Eventually the design is approved and construction is started. I love this stage for anything is again possible. It is fun to cut into fresh, new materials, welding, carving, sculpting, building. Our design suddenly comes to life in three dimensions at last.

Then as work proceeds we hit the wall. Endless details seem to slow things down. It feels like the project has gone on forever... with no end in sight. Some parts of the design looked great on paper but in real life are much more difficult. I’ve learned to trust myself, to just work through this phase. Before I know it the construction and fabrication are behind us and we are into the paint and finishing stages. The end is suddenly in sight... it’s coming together at last. The hard part is to wait for each coat of paint or glaze to fully dry before the next is applied. Then the piece is done!

Often the deadline is upon us and the piece rolls out the door with little time to simply enjoy it. But there is little time to be sad for the next project is most likely already in progress.

Life goes on in our shop...

-grampa dan