A Maker's Mindset Is Here, Teaching Days and Late-Night Recording
Some weeks in the workshop are about making things on the lathe. Others are about making things happen around it. This one was firmly in the second camp.
I'm still working out the rhythm for Turner's Journey going forward. After all your comments on the last episode (thank you for those), I'm leaning towards releasing episodes every two weeks for now. That gives me breathing room to keep the quality where I want it, and honestly, these past few days are a good example of why I need that buffer.
The big news is that A Maker's Mindset is ready. The manuscript is done, it's been uploaded, and it's available to pre-order on Kindle right now. I'm just waiting on a proof copy of the paperback to arrive, but the wheels are turning. It should be out around the 2nd of March. I managed to get a huge amount done in a very short space of time after the Sandon demonstration and teaching on Sunday, and it feels good to have it out there.
I've also decided to record an abridged audio version of the book as a new YouTube playlist. Thirty-two episodes of me reading selected chapters, with perhaps some gentle visuals in the background. It felt like the right way to share the ideas with people who prefer to listen rather than read, and it gives me a reason to sit with the words again and hear how they land out loud.
On the teaching side, I had a really enjoyable one-to-one lesson earlier in the week. The chap is looking to get into turning bowls and a few other pieces to sell at craft markets. He's coming for several sessions, and he's progressing exactly as I'd hope. There's something particularly rewarding about that kind of focused, one-on-one time. You can see the understanding building with each cut.
Then there was the Introduction to Hollowing class, the first proper weekday one after the test session back in January. Running it on a weekday meant an extra hour and a half, which made a real difference. I had time to set everything up properly, with hollowing tools, drill bits, tool rests, and a diagram at each lathe, and work through the material without feeling rushed. That extra breathing space matters more than people might think.
Valentine's Day found me up at the workshop filming a Bite-Size Workshop video on tenons that hold, specifically the importance of turning the right size tenon for the jaws you're using on your chuck. It's one of those fundamentals that's worth revisiting. The video should come in under ten minutes, and once I'd filmed it, I sat down with Adobe Premiere Pro to get it edited. Natalya had a couple of hours of work to do as well before we had the afternoon off and went out for the evening with my parents.
That evening, despite the beginnings of a cold creeping in, I decided to do a dry run of the audiobook recording. I set up Adobe Audition on the laptop, got the microphone positioned, and stood up to read because you speak better on your feet, you can move a bit, gesticulate, find the rhythm of the words. I ran through the complete introduction using an auto-cue, and I've included the whole thing in the episode so you can hear how it sounds.
Once the cold clears, I'll record it properly. But even as a rehearsal, it felt right. Sometimes you need to hear the words out loud to know they're landing where you want them to.
A Maker's Mindset is available in paperback and Kindle from Amazon, and in paperback from me:
