Binding agreement

Jen occasionally suggests that I should go on a plastering course. I think the general idea is that I would then be able to plaster the house. A useful skill, I suppose, but I can't help feeling that it would be far less hassle if we just paid a professional plasterer to do the work. I think Jen must secretly agree, because, in recent years, we have indeed, on more than one occasion, paid a professional plasterer to do such work.

I'd far rather learn woodwork. But there's a problem with that too: Jen wants to learn woodwork for herself, and she's damned if I'm going to cramp her style.

Which leaves me with the one handicraft I have always had a secret hankering to try, ever since I saw a documentary about it on the telly in the 1980s: book-binding.

Who knows? Perhaps, one day, when I'm retired, I'll send myself on a book-binding course, and end up doing something as utterly wonderful as this:

(No, I don't think it's very likely either.)

Richard Carter

A fat, bearded chap with a Charles Darwin fixation.

5 comments

  1. My oldest boy is a plasterer. I nearly fainted after seeing him climbing a ladder while wearing strap on stilts and carrying a trowel and a bucket of plaster.

  2. Although I haven't done all of the elements shown in this video I have done some. Working in this fashion, with these tools and products is just THE most satisfying thing.

  3. Oh man! You just have to check out the Helsinki Mobile Phone Orchestra on Youtube...

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