For a brief moment in time earlier in this summer, I cleared off the stringing desk because an out-of-town friend (& customer) was coming by to see what I've been up to.
Stringing desk, temporarily cleared off. This was just taken with my phone.[1]
The answer: not much.
But while I was tidying up, I decided to clean my pliers rack & photograph it.
pliers rack.
Like so many of my custom tools, this was built for me by the wizard, as I was able to document by looking at a web page so old I was still reducing images to 500, rather than 512 pixels. Sooooo...it's probably at least 30 years old—and still working great, despite the fact that it's now crammed end to end with pliers. Not bad for 1/4 ply thrown together, as you can see from the nail sticking out.[2]
Of course you can buy these things, but they tend to be ridiculously expensive for what you get, take up too much real estate on one's work surface, be too inflexibly designed, or both.
reverse.
Originally unpainted,[3] the raw wood now dingy from years (possibly decades) of use, since I'd finger-painted the trim of the current studio, sometime between 5 and 15 years ago[4] I decided to paint it to match—though judging from the strokes, I used a 1" brush.
I doubt I spent even as much time as the wizard did making it to paint it—it's certainly not great art—but it makes me happy to have these little personalized touches, especially in my work-space, the function of which is to make one's personalized take on things.
[1]Which, since it does so much internal processing there's not much point in recording the conditions
[2]If you look closely you can see the reinforcement that has been so effective in its longevity.
[3]The wizard loves the beauty of natural wood, but I never got around to varnishing it, not least because it was immediately put to use.
[4]the 2010s?
Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.
