My Maker Journey

As I hit my mid fifties I reflect on my maker journey from childhood to now.

I was born in Cape Town, South Africa.  Before my parent's divorced when I was 10 years old - my dad was a bit of a handyman and made some things around the house in between fits of rage. He did some woodworking and repaired some of our leather school book bags. He also made a faux leather, single pocket book sleeve once. All hand stitched.

I spent some time in the garage workshop making small things. I remember making a 'sail boat' from a dish washing liquid bottle. I also enjoyed playing with our off brand Lego set and when I got older I inherited my older brother's Meccano set. I was in heaven when I played with that. I can still recall the unique metallic smell off the Meccano pieces.

After my folks divorced, I lost the use of the workshop but still found solace in the Meccano and "Legos".  I received some car and air plane models over the years and had fun assembling those.

During high school, I got into electronics and built all sorts of things. That lead me to take an electronics course at college and later getting a technician position at a HVAC controls company in Cape Town. During those years I got a lot of fulfillment from the diverse "making tasks" my job provided. From building control panels, designing control systems using CAD, programming controllers, making graphical representations of the mechanical equipment we controlled, etc.

During my mid to late 20s I helped a good friend, who had woodworking tools and amazing skills, to build some furniture. 

And, then I met my wife, got married and moved to Canada. By the time we left, I had a few power tools - a nice drill, sander, etc. As South Africa uses 220V, I did not think I could bring those with me, so gave them to my friend. We landed in Halifax in February 2003. By mid 2004 our daughter arrived and by late 2005 we had purchased our first house. 

As new homeowners there were many projects to do but that was when my depression started getting out of control and kept me from doing or enjoying lots of things in life.  After some heavy conversations with my wife, I sought help and eventually got the needed medication.

I did manage to collect some woodworking tools and around 2010 I got a job-site table saw and a few other tools that enabled me to expand my skills.

In 2015 we moved to a house with a double garage. I now had a legit workshop. Even though the agreement was that my wife could park her car in the garage, this happened less and less as my projects grew in size. Sorry honey. However,  she is the one coming up with a lot of the project ideas.

Since then I have upgraded almost every tool in my shop, to where I now have a pretty nice setup. Over the years I've built shelving, cabinets, picture frames, beds with storage drawers, a vanity, a garden shed, a pergola, countless tables and workbenches, a jewelry cabinet, etc.  See my woodworking portfolio for some of the items I've built.  There are more on my Instagram. 

In late 2021, I started getting into leather-working.  That hobby has grown into potentially becoming my "retirement plan" where I've started kudu handcrafted and am looking at selling at local craft markets.  

During all this time I also enjoyed cooking and feeding my family, till they decided to become vegetarians.  That was a big loss for me, as I so enjoyed seeing them enjoying the meals I prepared, at least now I don't have to share.  LOL

Happy making.