Welcome

Welcome to my blog!

My name is Max and I have a creative streak which burns away inside.

I love to craft things from wood.

I work in the transport industry, and unfortunately what I do is not exactly environmentally friendly, however I am an avid fan of recycling and I have found a way to combine my hobby with a small contribution towards reducing waste.

Timber is a great medium to work with. Not the unseasoned characterless stuff from builders' merchants and DIY stores (although there is a time and place for that), but reclaimed, or salvaged wood, which has had a former use, and has seasoned over time, and acquired a character.

Almost every day it is possible to find something that has been discarded- at the tip, in a skip, washed up on the tide, or down by a river. Eventually it even gets to the stage where friends and family collect bits for me! Needless to say I do not believe in buying wood.

It comes in all shapes and sizes - driftwood, fence posts, scaffold boards, old stair cases, pieces of old sailing boats, packing cases, even vintage or antique furniture which may have been discarded. Sometimes its' origin is not apparent.

It all sits there until a little seed of inspiration plants in my mind - 'what could I do with that'?. Sometimes it takes weeks or even months; maybe another piece comes along which triggers a plan.

Old wood will have inevitably acquired a character in its' life - the effects of wind, rain, sun, water, sea or sand, and even continual human touch give texture, patina and discolouration, and cause knots, splits and dents - all tell a little story. I prefer to incorporate this distress into my work - wood is not a uniform clinical substance.

Like many people, I started of necessity. When my wife and I married, we did not have two beans to together. Our home furniture was an eclectic mix of donations from family interspersed with a few second hand items, and a few wedding presents. Although I never studied woodwork at school I always had a practical nature, and was able to see potential and quality in items which others would throw away. To this day we still own, and are sentimentally attached to furniture from our early days.

Refurbishing and renovating is equally rewarding, and often the results are far superior and durable than the modern chipboard derived products on sale today.

I have now arrived at the stage where although our home is complete, the urge to create still exists. I have discovered that what I like, others do too, and there is an enormous sense of achievement, when I have turned what was otherwise destined for the rubbish heap into an interesting and unique item, for which there is a demand.


I hope to share some of my enthusiam and ideas, and the internet offers a fantastic opportunity to do this.

Comments, suggestions are most welcome. If you see something you like, feel free to contact me

Enjoy, and lookout for me at 'www.folksy.com/shops/woodquirks'