Focus: Manie’s musings

FOCUS: Every now and then, we focus on a fellow shedder and see what the’ve been up to and learn a little about out mates. Contact Jeremy, Phil or Don to get your story told.

When I joined I primarily worked on the train project, but I wanted to do a bit of woodworking too.

At the time Keith McPherson had in mind to get members involved by having a project to work on. He made templates for the big chair and collected pallet wood to use. I took up the challenge and ended up the only one making a chair.

The chimes I made one each for my Mom and my children. The chimes are 3/4" copper tubing and they are tuned to notes on the pentatonic scale. I tune them by cutting the tube a little longer than needed and then trimming them sliver by sliver on the lathe. After each trim I check the frequency and trim again until the desired note is acquired.

I have another one which I will soon make and then I can take more pictures or even make a short video. The colours I get by heating up the pipes. The heat also distresses them and the notes then ring for longer (the pipes are cold extruded so there are a lot of stresses in the metal).

On the 3rd of November 2023 my Mom turned 90.

At the time of her birthday her descendants consisted of 76 members (from children down to great grandchildren).

In addition there were still three great grandchildren in the pipeline and two prospective partners for the two unmarried grandchildren.

I decided to make wooden flowers for my Mom's birthday; one for each family member, one for each great grandchild on the way, one for each of the prospective partners and four more for anticipated great grandchildren of the unmarried grandchildren. Our youngest sister has no children but she insisted that her dog is her child and hence I had to add one more. All in all therefore 86 flowers.

There were different flowers for each family category (the dog counted as a great grandchild).

I painted them and took the parts (15kg) to South Africa where I assembled them. (No issue taking wooden objects there).

Every family member had to write his/her name on their flower and were allowed to add colour, texture etc.

My Mom is still an avid photographer and makes photo books. When she was 80 she went on a trip with her daughters to visit her roots and her remaining siblings - she called it her death trip and made a photobook of it. When she turned 85 she went on another death trip and made another photobook.

For her 90th birthday we had two weeks of celebrations and she decided to make a photobook of the activities which include a function with her friends, a dinner with her children and spouses (us), a week in the Kruger National Park with her children and spouses and then a big day of fun and family photographs with everyone who could make it there. We handed her the flowers on that day.

I had to "plant" the flowers on her lawn for her to take photos for her book after which I mounted them on the wall of her porch where she sits every afternoon at six to drink her glass of Sauvignon Blanc.