◾️ One or Two More Things

A tweak here; a tweak there. Is the end of a project ever really the end? Tweaks can be made beyond a project’s completion. I’ve always believed so. That’s right; it is never really finished in the creator’s mind. How does that happen? I believe it happens in any number of ways and for anything. How it is managed is at the discretion of the woodworker. At the least, I’ll describe how it happens for me.

After I finish a project, it takes a while to wind down and accept that I’m done. The quiet settles in and suddenly I start thinking about what I could have done to make it better. I think about a tweak here or there I could have made – should have made – but didn’t. Well, I thought I liked what I did, but now I am not so sure. A minute or an hour passes before I calm down and convince myself that I did what I wanted to do – what I needed to do – in order to finish. I’m satisfied.

Numerous times I awakened out of a deep sleep and realized that I did, indeed, leave something off that I should have done. Thinking on it for a minute, it’s usually something I may have planned to do but ruled out. Somehow, my unconscious mind is still rolling it around and reminding me.

A few times, my ventures into the unknown or unproven keep me up at night. My wood shop friend, “mischievous me”, is a rebel. She has courage and is in good standing with me. She pushed me to think out of the box and to confidently do things that make my time in the shop meaningful and fun.

A tweak or two: the shop altar

Remember the Altar for my shop? I actually made that project across 7 posts. They were exhilarating to write and exhaustively detailed. Truth be told, I could have written several more!

There are a few tweaks that I made after completing the altar. I wanted to make a lock in the Dogon style. During my research, I found it to be a mysterious mechanical marvel! I studied many images in books and on the internet. Finally, the secret was revealed. Yes, I figured it out. My wood shop is a very different setting compared to the rustic ones in Mali. I did tweak an idea and came up with something just as elusive.

This is another crucial reason that access to heritage items is important. Does it have to be so hard? They should be available for real-time study, teaching, and learning. Then knowledge and skills can be passed on and preserved by the descendants of these innovative ancestors. And something else is reinforced: the empowering truth about who we are as a people, village, community, and continent.

First: That upper hinge

Here are a few images of the upper hinge that I did not include in the final project post. It shows how the hinge looks coming out of the top of the door frame. Come to think about it, this was the ultimate tweak since it was part of the project.

It is an effect that is quite interesting and authentic.

Here it is “live”:

Next: That door lock

I spent a bit of time thinking about this. Traditionally, the lock is a personalized piece made to fit the door and the surrounding space. My goal was to do the same.

I salvaged small wood blocks suitable to adapt into a lock in the Dogon style. Any modification to the door had to be discreet as possible. I thought about how this might work.

I put the latch on the altar.

Here is the lock in action:

Oh, yes. I love the organic feel of the latch!

Here is a longer version showing the operation of the lock and hinges:

If it makes a difference…

… go ahead and tweak it.

Are tweaks necessary? Maybe one tweak. two, or more. If there is an opportunity to make an improvement because of new information or a dream, I would do it.

Would you?


Baadaye

Shirley J 🌹