Does Your Spouse Really Like Your Projects?

I have been impressed by almost all the work that my fellow Family Woodworking members have shown. Of course I would not want certain objects, but that is not because of any deficiency in the object.

My wife, Margaret, is very good about telling me just what she likes and does not like and I very often consult with her about projects. Margaret does appreciate almost all the projects that I complete for her and for us. (But, she does not appreciate the fact that I have many uncompleted projects )

Gonna ramble a bit

As I have hung around places like this, and taken a class at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship, and gone to more galleries/museums that exhibited fine woodworking, my standards have increased. (Not saying that my skills are increasing at the same rate but I'm getting better). So sometimes when LOML hears me "talking" in the shop about a mistake she will try to say, "it is fine, don't worry about it" I"ve had to help her understand that I won't be proud of a piece unless I do the best that I'm capable of doing.

For example, when I was building the vanity base for our bathroom remodel I made the drawer faces/pulls out of a boards that were the full width of the unit, I had some nice grain flowing across the face of the unit. Until one of the drawers "bounced" off the concrete floor shattering the drawer pull. I tried to CA the handle together but it looked terrible. Wife tried to convince me to leave it as it was, I said NO, I'm not going to look at that every day for the next 40 years. So I milled another piece, routed it to shape, ripped the damaged piece off the drawer and replaced it.

She now understands that doing the best work possible is one of the joys of this hobby for me. But the stuff that some of you post here humbles me.

We all have our personal taste, so when someone asks for criticism I only comment if the design is within the bounds of my likes. I love Shaker and Maloff type stuff and feel that my comments might help someone asking for an opinion on similar pieces. Show me a Queen Ann or Newport style piece and my skin crawls, I couldn't imagine living with it so I would be totally unprepared to comment on the design.

That being said, great craftsmanship will always surface and deserves to be applauded regardless of the design so I'll comment. And I'm mindful of the fact that, like someone else mentioned, we tend to be a very self critical group. But, what we accomplish is often not full appreciated by others that don't know how much thought/work underlies the final result-- so places like this let us show our stuff to like minded people who REALLY know how the piece was created.

I trust you guys to give opinions that are intended to increase my skills, not run me down for trying.

Jay