There are moments in a parents life where you just wanna gush about your kids. This is one of those moments.
My oldest daughter, Casey is a Freshman in high school this year and is taking Art as one of her electives. In addition to doing a weekly sketch, one of the requirements is to turn in what they call a Master Works project once a month. This can be anything from photography to cake decorating to a metal working project to, hmmm, a woodworking project. Needless to say I was more than a little happy that she chose a woodworking project. After a little discussion we decided on a small lidded box. To practice, we went out to the shop and just for fun I had her cut a practice dovetail. With little instruction, she seemed to get the hang of it fairly quickly. So, even though I knew it was ambitious for a first woodworking project, we decided on a small, dovetailed box. Well, it was a lengthy couple of days in the shop, but enjoyable ones. Casey did almost all of the work on her own, marking, sawing, chopping out the waste. I did lend a hand paring a few of the dovetails to the line but that was about it. She struggled a little here and there with sawing, especially starting the cuts, but she stuck with it and never got discouraged or disgusted. She kept a great attitude throughout and in the end she was extremely pleased with how it turned out and I couldn't have been more proud. She put some paint on it and then painted a flowering dogwood branch on the lid with her signature sitting on the branch. It sits on her dressing table in her room now and I hope she'll treasure it for the rest of her life. I know I'll always treasure the memory of building it with her.
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| Laying out the tails with dividers |
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| Sawing to the line |
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| Inspecting her work |
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| The happy, budding cabinetmaker |
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| The finished product, with her artistic touch |
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| A closer look at her painting |
Oh, I also have a daughter in sixth grade who's been wanting to get out there and learn some tricks since before I even had the shop done. Gotta make time for that real soon. I can't wait!
7 comments:
These are the most important projects we can work on (and I'm not talking about the box). Good on you dad!
Enjoyable post - Looking forward to having my girls in the shop with me soon as well!
Casey, did a fantastic job on her project. Love, love, love the dogwood branch on the lid. Looks like some of Dad's talents were inherited. Great job Casey:)
Mom
Most impressive. I have a daughter as well and on several occasions she has expressed a desire to come out to my garage/shop and create something. I have always dropped what I was doing and taken advantage of that opportunity.
I’ve read a lot about the positive effects on girls when they get to do things like this with their Dads but I personally have noticed a positive effect on me as well. Something about working with her (especially now that she’s an adult) seems to improve my ability to work with everybody else.
I’d like to brag on my own daughter but this is not the place.
Love the dogwood accent BTW.
So awesome! I foresee another workbench in the shop for Casey.
Very nice Jamie! I have two daughters - 5 & 7 - and I can't wait to get them into the shop more. Keep it up - and keep blogging about it.
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