Well I did it, I finally did it. Three
years of my life, dedicated to learning. But now I am a qualified
Carpenter/Joiner, City and Guilds Level 3. At least that is what the
certificates will say when they finally arrive through my letter box.
I can officially say, I have changed my occupation from graphic
artist to carpenter or chippy. But I can honestly say I don't really
feel that I can really call myself a carpenter just yet. I still feel
more comfortable in front of a computer screen with a mouse in my
hand, getting to grips with Photoshop, than I do with hanging a new
street door and fitting all the locks.
To call yourself a carpenter/joiner you
need many years of practice and experience. At 52 years if, God
willing, I reach retirement, I might be able to say, yes I was a
carpenter. Working as a maintenance man for Southwark Council is
probably not the best environment to hone and practise your new
skills as a carpenter, youre more likely to be handling, plastic and
chipboard than timber. But maybe I will touch on that in another blog
in the future.
The craft of carpentry goes back to the
very beginning of man's existence on this earth. I remember many
years ago doing a series of Bible talks for some young people on a
camp. The subject was Noah. I told the children that Noah had a lot
in common with Jesus, who would arrive many years later. Noah as well
as being a preacher and a saviour, was a carpenter too. He had to be
a skilled carpenter if he was a going to build an ark or gopher wood,
which would be used to save the world. Jesus was firstly a carpenter,
then a preacher and finally a saviour, crucified on a cross of wood.
My journey into carpentry
has much more humble beginnings, and there is no large amounts of
water involved, thank goodness! Though once, when putting back some
floors in a council house, I did manage to place a screw directly
into a copper water pipe. Thankfully, that day, a plumber was on
hand, to put right a potentially disastrous situation, avoid a flood
and a call to Direct Line.
My journey started with my
lovely Dad, Sidney Walter Whitton. My dad was never a carpenter, but
like men of that generation, who had lived through the war, he
seemed, to a young lad like myself, to be able to do just about
everything: fix my bike, mend my toys and make things work that
didn't. My dad had several jobs after the war, the most scary of
which was that of a steeple jack. I have pictures of him at the top
of these enormous tall chimneys, dangling there in very basic bosun's
chair, a piece of wood and some rope. No hard hat, no safety
clothing, just a bare torso, painting away, smiling and laughing, not
scared at all. I miss my Dad terribly sometimes. Just writing this
brings back so many memories. When Dad wasn't working, which he was,
6 full days a week, and half day on Sunday sometimes, up and down the
country, he was making things at home. I think my mum missed him a
great deal when he was working away from home. But when he made
things, it was not always with wood but rather with metal like brass
and aluminum. He made buses, canons, planes, a sword etc and all in
miniature and from scratch, no kits. He would sit at a little table
or in the kitchen, a cup of tea next to him, a woodbine cigarette
smoking away in the ash try (in the days before he gave up and became
addicted to Polo mints). There he would use a small vice, along with
an assortment of tools and put together these one-of-a-kinds. My
older brother Steve obviously inherited that love of all things
metal. He worked with my dad for several years and went on to own his
own foundry in Charlton.
But my dad also put his hand to making
things out of wood. He made wooden forts for soldiers, a full size
sewing box for mum, a miniature sewing box, a tiny model of the Cutty
Sark, crib boards and small tables. One of the small tables he made,
I can only describe as a double top table. On one top he painted a
simple chess board and on the other a colourful bird. It's these
memories that maybe placed a seed in me and gave me that interest in
wood and the desire to make things.
I am 52 as I write this and some might
say I have left it a bit late to life to begin a new career as a
carpenter. For 32 years of my life, since leaving school in 1980, I
worked in the print industry. For the greater part of those 32 years,
I was an artworker or a graphic artist. I assumed that would always
be my trade until retirement or death, whatever came first. But life
doesn’t always turn out like you plan, or hope for. In my 32 years
in the print I had just 4 jobs and pretty much continuous employment
in that time. But then I lost my job, the details of which I have
tried to forget. Thereafter followed a period of over 2 years where I
was out of work. Anyone who has been out of work for a long period
will know how difficult it is, especially when you have a family. It
grinds you down, reduces your confidence, makes you feel useless, and
make you think you'll never be employed again. But worst of all is the
stigma that clings to you. That said, those two plus years had some
real highs as well. The extra time I got to spend with my family was
probably the biggest advantage. But also, in that time, I took a Post
Graduate course in Design, became a volunteer gardener and took up
wood carving.
Then one day a friend I knew at
Southwark Council suggested, “why don't you try for one of the
apprenticeships on offer at the council”. I thought to myself “me
an apprentice, at the age of 49, your joking....aren’t apprentices
young people who have just left school, still covered in spots and
living with mum and dad? What hope do I have of becoming an
apprentice at my age, married with 4 children?”
But, I swallowed what pride I had left
and looked at the vacancies on offer. Amongst the list of various
office jobs, there was also a sign maker, a surveyor, a cemetery
worker, a plumber and a carpenter. So I went for the position of
apprentice carpenter with Mears, a maintenance contractor with the
council. After 3 interviews, 2 tests and a six month process, for
some reason they picked me.
Three years on, I find myself writing
about my experiences, carpentry, wood carving and working for the
council. As I said at the beginning, I maybe be a qualified carpenter
on paper, but I am not worthy of the title yet. In my opinion
carpenters are some of the most skillful people there are. They build
houses, boats, churches, furniture, areoplanes, wheels, toboggans
etc, the list is endless. In a book I just finished reading, called
'The man who made things out of trees' by Robert Penn, it mentions
the fact that carpenters were even employed in the early days of the
car industry, when the car frames were made out of ash wood. In the
1960's the London Routemaster buses were still built with wooden
structural bodies. There is also a company today who make wooden bike
frames, a bit pricey though at £2000. In his book he was able to get
over 40 different objects made from just one ash tree. From wooden
wheels to a simple tent peg, made by carpenters and related trades.
One of the reasons I chose to be come a
carpenter, was that by becoming one, I would never be out of work
again. Let's hope that’s the case. Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed
chapter one of this story and you stick with me in the weeks and
months to come. So I can share with you, the stories behind my
carvings, working as a carpenter for the council, and maybe even how
to make things out of wood.
