Lucy Rogers
COLUMN SPARK
ow many UFOs can you
see in your workshop?
Unfinished objects (UFOs)
were taking up too much
of my mental and physical
space, so I made time
this summer to either finish them or
bin them.
There are many reasons I have
unfinished objects – maybe I got stuck,
didn’t have the right tool or part, or
more pressing (paid) work got in the
way. Or, more likely, when things are
tidied away and out
of sight, they lose
their importance.
Rummaging
through the
unmarked brown
cardboard boxes,
I discovered that
some projects still
made me smile. For
example, the one
that hit me with a soapy, metallic,
creamy sort of smell – the smell of brass
polish. It reminds me of my childhood- polishing the brass items was my job,
and I always had to have a shiny Girl
Guide badge. In the box was an old
carriage lamp. I’d wanted to make it into
a table lamp. I’d taken it apart and
cleaned it – hence the smell. But it still
needed a new light fitting and switch
installed, and a stand making for it. The
wood for the stand was lurking in the
workshop, hidden under a pile of other
wood, the new light fitting and cable was
in the box – but I was missing a switch- so I ordered one off the internet, and
then spent a happy few hours putting all
the bits together – wondering why I had
ever shelved the project.
Other projects I wondered why I
had ever started, such as the
electroluminescent wire bow-tie. Some
projects had been superseded by
technological advancements or by more
affordable commercial products – like a
video doorbell. Or my life had changed - I no longer own ducks, so the duck egg
incubator project
also got cancelled.
I reclaimed, or
recycled, all the parts
and crossed them off
my mental list.
Some of my UFOs
are books that I
either haven’t started
or finished reading.
It’s always a pleasure
to give myself permission to read a book.
I binge read, so once I’m in, I’m in for a
good while. This summer I’ve enjoyed
Adam Savage’s Every Tool’s a Hammer
and Emilie Wapnick’s How to Be
Everything – as well as Ursula K. Le
Guin’s Earthsea series. I find fiction
stories, especially science fiction or
fantasy, always recharge my creativity.
Now I also have a lovely table lamp,
more parts in my parts boxes, more shelf
space in the workshop. And a slightly
less nagging ‘you should finish that
before you start a new project’ feeling.
UFOs
Spring – er, autumn– clean your workshop shelves
Lucy Rogers
@DrLucyRogersLucy is a maker, an engineer,
and a problem-solver. She is
adept at bringing ideas to life.
She is one of the cheerleaders
for the maker industry, and is
Maker-in-Chief for the Guild
of Makers: guildofmakers.orgH
Some of my
UFOs are books
that I either
haven’t started or
finished reading