Novice Woodworking

A very long time ago, when I was first talking about making posts that were not directly related to World of Warcraft, one of the first things I thought I'd be making posts about was my crafts. I made an introductory post to present the fact that it was even a thing that I did, and from that point on I forgot to take step by step pictures of my crafts for the next ever. I made a lot of stuff since that post, just never thinking about making a post about it until after the craft was already made. Well, I finally thought about it beforehand enough to make a post about it. It's not a fancy suede bag or, like, a table or whatever, but it's something.

Over the last few weeks, each time I had been in any kind of department or retail store, I had glanced around for a paper towel holder. It wasn't the biggest priority on my list, since paper towels are perfectly functional without a holder, but after awhile without one, it was starting to bug me.

Then I remembered that I know how to do things, so I just made one.

in your face, walmart

I had a wooden dowel at home, so as soon as I saw a little circle of wood in the crafting section I knew what to do. I put it together really quickly last night before playing some Magic and going to bed.

the hard part was finding the recipe in my crafting log

The process was to screw the dowel into the circle. Not super complex stuff - that's why I don't feel too bad about not taking step by step pictures of that process to show in this post. They would have been super boring. The only trick was making an indentation in the bottom of the circle that the screw would go all the way into, as to have the whole thing sit flat.

very interesting picture of a screw inside of some wood

I wanted to class it up a bit, so I worked on sanding down the top so it wasn't all crookedy, with plans to paint it and maybe add some decorative flair.

this is maybe not surprisingly hard to do

Sanding the top down with the intention for it to be flat was nearly impossible. I decided to compromise to just making it look not terrible

maybe just glue this on here call it a day

might be too 'crazy cat person'y

went back at it with a razor knife, much easier

I don't know why I didn't think of the knife sooner. Maybe I thought the dowel wood was going to be too hard to shave off, before I remembered that I cut the thing with a handsaw in the first place. I am not a very strong person.

I settled for this decoration

 I wanted it to sit inside the top of the dowel a little bit, so I fired up the drill.

this seems kind of dangerous

maybe I should have done this outside

perfect!

The bead in the top made the unevenness more obvious, so I went back at it with the razor knife and made it pretty acceptable. I wanted to paint it, but I wasn't sure what I wanted to paint on it. Something lame like flowers?

so I said screw it, make it black

cat scratching break

the lighting makes the bead look glowy

All done, completely black.

one standard paper towel holder, done

Looked at some cat pictures while I waited for it to dry.

It was entirely black, top to bottom. I had wanted to do something more to it. I wanted to paint some kind of design or, I don't know, something. Like, whatever. Surely a master craftsman like me could make it into a fanciful piece of art.

oh crap I forgot that I can't paint

it just gets worse and worse

why

After the first second the brush hit it with the red paint, I realized it was going to look awful. I mean, first of all, I'm painting on top of black, and second of all, I can't paint. I am not a painter. In fact, I can actually create pretty decent art with almost any other medium, except paint. Like, why did I ever think I was going to paint this and it was going to look fancy or artistic?

Well, after the red spiral was on it, I realized it was going to look silly. So, instead of a sleek, modern artistic paper towel holder, I decided it was going to be a silly paper towel holder.

Besides, most of it won't be visible while the paper towels are on it. Worst case scenario, I'll just cover it back up all black.

Sorry this isn't something more exciting and detailed, like a leather craft. I've made like six bags without remembering to take step by step pictures, so you can scoff at me through your computer screen for that. However, things like this represent the best part about handiworks - the most satisfying part about creating things is being able to take situations into your own hands. I needed a paper towel holder, I couldn't find one, so I said, fine! I'll just make one.

Being able to supply yourself with the things you need starts with getting used to the idea that everything you buy, everything anyone has made, anything made in a factory, is made up of parts. Learn how to put together those parts and you can start relying on yourself more.