“Sorry it was so much bother” “Don’t worry about it, everything I do is bother!” I like to bother about stuff, that’s my day-job: dream, design, then make. Hundreds of small steps and details to bother about, on the way to something new. Along the way, I repair a lot of my own stuff. My friend and neighbour is a: “Please look after my dog” “Who wants cake and mojito’s?” - kind of neighbour. And he broke a favourite belt. It wasn’t expensive, but it is quite lovely: supple, dark Italian leather, with a cast buckle that delivered all the strain of bending over after a big dinner onto a tiny plate of who-knows-what cast metal that is - was - less than 1mm thick. Poor design. Why not just buy another belt? Maybe he should have—but it’s the principle… W e can mend things, and I could share a little happiness by drilling two holes and swinging a hammer to set 2 fat new rivets through a serious piece of scrap brass—that belt now has 5.7mm of quality metal to take the strain. A qui...
working through my obsessions