I was pleasantly surprised to hear from CustomMade.com that we were chosen as one of their top ten favorites just before Christmas!  Scroll down through the other beautiful pieces to find my dresser "Took A Hit". CustomMade is a great website begun by one guy trying to promote the work of bespoke furniture makers in North America. It's now expanded considerably and includes jewellers, glass makers, and many others.

It's quite humbling to see the standard of workmanship out there; it reminds me of preparing for the show in Cody each year. I think - "yes, I like the piece I have created" and then I get there and see the incredible creativity and standard of work by my fellow woodworkers. That's why it's good to go to shows in my opinion - it reminds us that nothing is new under the sun! I'm getting ready for a show in March - the Scottsdale Arts Festival. I think my pieces will be different and unique - and yet, and yet... we shall see.

Here is a peek at the end tables I am making for Scottsdale. Not quite finished but three quarters of the way there. Today I'm working on the copper; you will have to wait and see what it's purpose will be!

P.S. CustomMade.com is an online marketplace that connects buyers of custom furrniture, decorative items and other products with the artisans who make them.

There are many facets to an artist, but one quality that most, if not all artists possess to some degree is in... in... insecurity.  There! I've said it.  Not that I want to admit it but it's true, if we're honest that is.  So who wants to show that bit of dirty laundry?  NO ONE!  That's a character flaw for Pete's sake.  So, we cover it up, or try to anyway.

It is 200 years ago today that Charles Dickens was born, and as a consequence there is much in the media celebrating his life and amazing writings. I heard Simon Callow, the actor and also biographer of a new book on Dickens, say today : '"Dickens' greatest fiction was his own character.....People think of him as a jolly chap ... but he was ... increasingly plagued with depression and a sense of hopelessness and despair. And that's worth knowing. I think it's always good to know that great creative individuals have their struggle, their drama." How well put. Or as writer friend said to me when I asked, "do you ever wonder if you're good enough?" and he answered, as he puffed on his pipe, "Ah yes, that is a question we really don't want to ask ourselves." 

So then I think, perhaps it is the insecurity that drives us on in some way, to prove to ourselves that we do have a gift,  but then we try to take it back as if we were the source, rather than what it is, a gift.