Hitting the Wall

this is another tool to use as a Life Guide but this time I adapted it somewhat to focus on the barriers that my daughter’s students use in the classroom.

On the one side of the walls are some of the excuses that are used as to why something can’t be achieved or completed. With these thoughts in mind, they remain stuck in the problem, and their learning is halted, the class is halted, and the teacher gets frustrated!!

To overcome the barriers, to climb the wall and move forward, the flip side of the wall has supports to use and thoughts to focus on in order to achieve, learn, and produce the desired outcome.

The Process
Again, using a pine board, I cut out the two main pieces and sanded them down. I then sketched out the bricks and woodburned the lines and the words into the wall.

I then tried using my dollar store chisel to cut the slot into the bottom for the wall to fit into. But that wasn’t working very well, but I did the the sides cut clean and the middle half-way cleaned out. I then decided to put it on hold until Rick could finish cutting it out for me using the mitre saw.

With this step complete, I used the drill press to put holes in the wall and then cut some dowelling lengths using the scroll saw. After sanding the front edges of the dowels I glued them into place and then glued the wall into the base.

Although i didn’t get the base/wall edges completely flush I have to credit Ethan for my gluing process. I applied the glue, stuck in the wood, wiped the glue off and momentarily thought it was done – but then I saw those tiny little squishes of glue still visible and all I could think of was Ethan noticing the glue on projects shown at his community groups. So, out came some wood shavings to remove the glue as much as possible – or what I could see, anyway. My previous “good enough” was no longer good enough. Thanks Ethan :) You were the support that I needed to keep climbing up and overcoming my wall of excuses for not being a perfectionist. Gluing: check.. next – accuracy in the cuts!

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