Anselm's Angle

They say familiarity breeds contempt and this month Anselm argues that too much familiarity with our jobs can lead us down the road to professional death. So he recommends that each year we all take a time out to expand our professional knowledge in a challenging and stimulating way. We join him on his return from France where he felt he was able to re-learn woodworking.

 

2 months after the woodworking course...

“I’ve just returned from 4 weeks in the Loire valley and what a time it’s been! I’m tanned, well-fed and completely re-energised. Yes, life is good. But I’m not going to sit here and wax lyrical about Muscadet sur Lie, moules à la marinière, or the stunning weather; partly because I don’t want to make you jealous, partly because I was actually working out there but mostly because I have a serious point to make.

 

Making furniture:  My life but not my everything

As some of you know, the woodworking school takes up a great deal of my time during the months when the woodworking course runs. And as those of you who have done the course should know, I often espouse that if we settle into doing one thing for too long, we all run the risk of becoming one-trick-ponies; whether it’s you, me or anybody, in any profession. One of the great things about making furniture and doing furniture restoration (and one of the reasons so many people learn woodwork in the first place) is that we have more flexibility to choose the timing and the manner of our work than many others. To this end, my tip of the month is this:

 

Try something new. Diversify. Diversify your skill sets, open yourself to new professional experiences and challenge your abilities. And set aside time do this once a year.

Beyond the woodworking school...

I want to share my own experience with you. I love running the woodworking school. Of course I do. And because of this, the last thing I want is to become consumed by it. So I busy myself with other work throughout the year. The woodworking course runs over 36 weeks (including the student breaks), outside of school time I concentrate on my furniture restoration business and for one month of the year I try something new. This year I restored 4 small cottages in the Loire valley. The work was varied, from painting and decorating to landscaping. But we also made and fitted a spiral staircase and we restored some shutters. So I was still able to busy myself making furniture and doing furniture restoration, but the objective was different. The new perspective made the work exhilarating and the surroundings were just phenomenal. I got the same buzz as I had when I first started out in this business. It is as if I was able to learn woodworking all over again. Small wonder, then, that I feel invigorated.

 

So my advice is you take a leaf out of my book and every year do something different. Make it a combination of doing something you love, something that is therapeutic and something that develops you professionally. This year I sought out my favourite three S’s: sun, sanding and, of course...

 

...Savennières. Mmmmm. Here’s to a happy summer for you all!

 

Anselm Fraser