Jojo's Workshop

I thought I was having blurry vision when I looked at the map loading.. and then I read “Japan”! :)

what kind of woodworking do you do? or are you interested in?

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

Hi Debbie! Thanks for your comment. No, don’t get you eyes checked, they (presumably) work just fine. :o)

If you look at my profile you’ll see that now I do not have a shop -sigh!- due to certain factors associated with the lifestyle here but my thing is cabinetmaking with sporadic incursions in multiple aspects of the craft as carving and others.

Of course, living here I can’t pass on the opportunity of learning the art of traditional japanese interior design like shoji panels (rice paper divisions), fusuma (sliding silk doors), tansu (cabinetry) and so on. Also I’m fascinated by the traditional joinery pacticed here. I’ve never seen anything like that!

PS: I’ve looking through your projects and I have to say that I really like that raw/rustic look of most of them. I think it somehow help us to connect with the natural side of the material and that special feeling that conveys.

-- Jojo, shopless in Kyoto · http://www.japanese-woodworking-tools.com/

thanks “Shopless in Kyoto” .. perhaps you should add something like “but not inspiration-less”

I haven’t made anything “rustic” lately. Been to busy with building a shed.. but hopefully soon, I can get back at it.

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

I hope you get the opportunity for a shop again soon JoJo.

Wow, that must be a great learning experience to see new ways of doing things, learning skills that have been used for hundreds of years, and the wonderful creations they turn out.

If you can’t build it, you can take pictures and show us what types of works they create. You could post them in your blog.

-- Bill, Turlock California, http://www.brookswoodworks.com

Thanks Bill, I’m sure I will have it… once I relocate across the pond.

Indeed the joinery job here is amazing. Did you know that the tall pagodas, some of which are more than 200 ft in height, are assembled without any nails? Just by the pure art of joinery? And that they are the only kind of buildings that have been resisting all the very frequent earthquakes during more than a thousand years? They even studied the fact and some years ago the scientists here build a simulator, basically a big hydraulically shaking platform with a scale reproduction of one of those placed on top and they weren’t able to destroy it by any means, even with the highest equivalent forces in the earthquake scales. It’s simply amazing.

I’m gonna dig in my iPhoto Library and find some pics to post.

Nice job on your gallery. I particularly like the clever design and the effect of the contrasting woods on the artist’s box.

-- Jojo, shopless in Kyoto · http://www.japanese-woodworking-tools.com/

That is quite interesting about the joinery. I bet we could learn a few things from them on that.

I am looking forward to the pictures.

-- Bill, Turlock California, http://www.brookswoodworks.com

Hi Jojo,

You have a beautiful collection of tools. You can do far more with your hand tools than most can with an arsenal of power tools. I have a new found respect and admiration for those woodworkers who either by choice or by circumstances pursue the hand tool route. This is a true craftsman’s approach to the hobby/profession.

Thanks for the post.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

Thank you Scott, you might think your shop is small but what would I do for having it… even it my wife would get mad at me for making sawdust! :o)

It is actually way mor hard and dangerous to work without a real shop and specially a proper workbench but you got to do what you got to do, isn’t it?

BTW, I always loved the simplicity and elegance of your plant stand. I’d never though it is made of construction grade lumber!

-- Jojo, shopless in Kyoto · http://www.japanese-woodworking-tools.com/