Working with wood is a nuisance. It splits, cracks, twists and warps, creates dust and shavings which take up residence in all your garments. It blunts every sharp blade and makes you spend hours repairing machines. Then, when finally made into something, it will continue to breath in and out throughout the rest of its life and gladly uncover any weakness in your design or craftmanship. Moreover, every wood has its own idiosyncratic notions and making friends with any of them is a time-consuming journey with far too many pitfalls.
Thankfully modern technology is finding homogenous solutions to these variables and producing sustainable and effective wood substitutes catering for the demands of society and all often with the ease of pressing a few buttons. At last!
Unfortunately, however, having been born into a third generation family of woodworkers, the luxury of technology was wasted on me; a sharp hand-tool and keen senses was all you honed. A positive sense of struggling and frustration was necessary as your patience came to exhaustion and the splinter entrenched further.
At O'Caoilte Studio I strive to keep this time-honored tradition of some blood, sweat and tears in my work. All good relationships need it and considering the beauty of wood it seems a reasonable struggle to endure. Indeed, had I been a tree in life then I certainly would not have made it easy for anyone to turn me into a tabletop!
