If there is one thing I love it’s when my girls like coming down in my workshop and spending time with me. Especially when it involves making something. About a week before my youngest daughter’s 13th Birthday I had asked her what she wanted to do on her birthday. She said she had decided to have a simple birthday party at home with just the family. Then she said, “I’d really like to turn a pen.” I love woodturning on my lathe, and getting to share that with my kids well…
That absolutely made my day. I thought I had everything on hand to do the job so I just put it in the back of my mind for a few days. Tuesday came and I left work early to be home when she got back from school. I started cleaning up the area from a project I had just finished up the week before and started setting out everything we would need to make a pen. To say I’m disorganized is an understatement. It looks like a tornado traveled through my workshop most of the time. Even my dad recently commented that he didn’t think “I could put another screwdriver in the basement.” I showed him, I went out and bought an entire set of chisels.
Fortunately after a slight amount of panic set in and we were about to switch to an Ice Cream scoop handle, I found the kit, and everything she needed to turn it. Close call.
The rest is in the video. She turned the pen by herself, I cut the blanks and prepared them. It was not only fun watching her find her comfort zone, it was fun recording the memory for the whole family to enjoy for years to come. I hope you enjoy watching this video. I put a lot into the editing and feel like I couldn’t have chosen a better sound track to accompany the project. Please take a moment to comment. Be nice, she’s my daughter.
