I'm back in the saddle again.... sort of....

Don't read too much into this - but I'm back teaching for a short while! 

I've been building a ton of furniture lately, like this armoire. 

And this low credenza, which I love, love, love. 

And this mirror, 

with its little carved detail.

All this building got me thinking about making drawers and doors, which I am building right now. They're a little tricky to build, and accuracy is key. So many people who share woodworking stories with me tell me about their frustration with drawer making. 

Here's a funny one - the first time I cut dovetails, I cut them backwards. (We love to share our mistakes, don't we?) The mechanics of a dovetail make it impossible to pull the drawer apart, but with my amateur skills, I reversed the tails and pins. 

Uh-oh, but here's the good thing about mistakes - we rarely make them a second time. (I scrapped the drawer and made a new one , BTW.)

I just started the doors for this cabinet, and it got me thinking about the Intermediate class that I used to teach - it's a good one. The class is more focused on learning techniques than actually building projects - and that's really important. 

To me - the whole key to woodworking is practice, practice, practice. I know - practice can be boring, and most people want something to show for their efforts. But practice is what makes us better. 

Oh - here's another good story - I was once building 25 drawers for a kitchen I remodeled and didn't pay attention to what I was doing when cutting the drawer box parts. So there should have been 25 left drawer sides, and 25 right sides... well, I accidentally cut 35 lefts and 15 rights. 

via GIPHY

All this is to say - if you want to grow your skills, I hope you'll join me as a guest instructor at Wood It Is - for the Intermediate Woodworking class. Here's a link to read more, or to register.