Got my Wife into Woodworking

[Gilbert Vega]

I posted a while back about the RBI scroll saw I had bought for my wife. Well, a couple of weeks ago she decided to try a Intarsia project for her brother-in-law (who's a shrimper). She got the idea from a pic on some scroll saw magazine. We blew it up and used it as a pattern. She used Curly Maple for the shrimp and Walnut for the background. This is her first project from start to finish. I'm very pleased with her effort.

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k240/00lightning/finishedshrimp.jpg?t=1166127679

[John Gregory]

excellent job. My wife and I are equal partners in our woodworking hobby.
She did the design and the enginerring for our latest project
http://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=47653 and most of the staining and finishing.

I think it is great when a couple can share the same hobby. So many couples have diverse hobbies, and a shared hobby can keep them close.

[Eric Sabo]

I was thinking of getting a Lathe, learning its basics, and then getting the wife to try it. A scrollsaw is another great idea. I'd love for her to be able to share the hobby she is so supportive of.

Good job!

[John Timberlake]

Really nice. Doesn't look like a first project. Seems appropriate as a gift to shrimper. Keep it up.

[Gil Liu]

Nice work from the Missus! My wife and I took a woodworking course together this last term at our local arts center. We made picture frames together for our class project and now she's a great help with the table saw, jointer, planer, and sander! We hope to take Woodworking II and aim for a table :)

[Gary Keedwell]

LOL.

Bought my wife a fancy Hegner scroll saw over ten years ago and she used it at first but tapered off to zilch before one year. Hasn't touched it in 9 years!!!!

Gary K.

[Tyler Howell]

Good news and bad. You can buy lots of tools:D But you have to share:eek:. Very nice job.

[Nancy Laird]

Almost 24 years, when LOML and I got married, it didn't take me long to realize that if I wanted to spend any quality time at all with him, I'd have to spend it in the garage we had then as his workshop. At first I'd just sit and talk to him, then it progressed to holding things, handing him things, helping him sand, then on to staining, finishing, etc. Through 5 moves, we've worked out of one- and two-car garages until we moved into our present house with its three-car garage-sized detached workshop, and things started rolling from there. Over the past few years I've acquired a scroll saw (mine!!), we have a Matchmaker which I demonstrated at AWFS in Las Vegas 2005 for the company, and now this summer a midi-lathe (also mine!!). Every time he goes into the workshop, I'm usually right behind him--wrestling 4x8 sheets of plywood or MDF or OSB or helping unload the 300 board feet of maple out of the truck!!

Granted, there are some things I will not do in the shop--like the router, but I can make box joints on the Matchmaker, drill shelf-pin holes with the boring machine, cut stuff on either the Unisaw or the radial-arm saw, insert hinges into cabinet doors, drill holes, drive screws, smear glue, and make pens.

I love it, and he likes having me in the shop to help. I also think that for us, it's a safety issue--if something happens to one of us in the shop, the other is there to take quick action. I'd love to see more women in the field, but it's one of "those" hobbies that most women feel is a "man's world" and they don't want to try. If more women were to try their mate's hobby (and vice versa, gentlemen!!!), there would probably be fewer divorces, broken-up homes, and latchkey children in the world.

Just my $49.95!

Nancy

[Nancy Laird]

I was thinking of getting a Lathe, learning its basics, and then getting the wife to try it. A scrollsaw is another great idea. I'd love for her to be able to share the hobby she is so supportive of.

Good job!

Eric, if your wife can sew, she can learn to scroll. The basic techniques are the same--follow a pattern line. With sewing, you're putting it together; with scrolling, you're taking it apart, but the technique is so similar that it was a breeze for me to learn.

Nancy

[Teri McCarter]

I love it, and he likes having me in the shop to help. I also think that for us, it's a safety issue--if something happens to one of us in the shop, the other is there to take quick action. I'd love to see more women in the field, but it's one of "those" hobbies that most women feel is a "man's world" and they don't want to try. If more women were to try their mate's hobby (and vice versa, gentlemen!!!), there would probably be fewer divorces, broken-up homes, and latchkey children in the world.


Nancy,
I totally agree! My husband and I do most projects together because he is better at routing, circular and table saws and I am better with the miter saw, scroll saw and sanding/finishing. I do most of the designing and trim work and he does the guts.

As for the vice versa on hobbies, he has wanted to try his hand at sewing since he watches and keeps me company when I am sewing.

Teri

[Steve Rowe]

I took my wife to the 2004 IWF and figured that after the first day she would decide she wanted to go shopping instead of attend the show. She stuck with me for 3 days. On the way back home, she asked me if I would teach her how to turn. She said it looked like fun and never really took much interest in woodworking as she just enjoyed the final product. In 2005 we both took a one week woodturning course with Richard Raffin, and in 2006 at Kelly Mehler's school she made her first raised panel door. And then again to the IWF and a good time was had by all.
Steve

[Jim Becker]

That's a really nice looking project!! Very nice!

[Gilbert Vega]

My wife (and I) thanks you for the compliments. Since I became serious in woodworking she has always been in the shop with me. What is really unusual is that before I retired this October we spent most of the day together at work as well. We were both engineers for the same company and worked in the same building. We'd carpool to work as well. basically we spent all our time toghether and then spent more time together during the weekends doing woodworking. All I can say is that woodworking would not be as much fun if we didn't do it together.