As those who have followed my blogs for the past couple of years know, besides computers, I love working with wood.  I have had my own wood shop in the basement for the past 6 years and when I have some free time I love to go down and put my more creative side to work.  I have often heard developers debating about whether programming is an art or a science or a bit of both.  I have personally spoken to many different programmers throughout the years and have found that many people in our field have a strong passion for creative endeavors, whether it is painting, music or even woodworking.  I think it is a natural extension of the creativity a developer uses when programming.  It is much more than a mere technical exercise of taking a set of specs and turning them into a completed application.

One of my joys for the past several years has been creating Christmas gifts for family and friends.  For the past two years, this has primarily been woodturning projects.  I love woodturning because I can go from a concept to a completed project in less than a weekend.  As my skills have improved, I am getting to the point where I can turn a complete project in a single day.

This year for Christmas, I decided to make my wife a set of matching salt and pepper grinders.  Unfortunately, this project turned out to be a little more complicated and required more precision that I was able to squeeze out of my meager woodturning equipment and skills.  So I fell back to a project I knew I had the skill and equipment to complete.

I had purchased a piece of Amboyna Burl about a year and a half ago.  I had been saving this piece of wood until my skills had improved, since turning burl is a little more challenging.  The swirling wood grain, bark inclusions and embedded dirt can be hard on the tools and can make getting a decent cut difficult.  Also, since Amboyna burl is very expensive (this small 6 x 6 x 3 inch block was over $80), I didn't want to turn it unless I thought my skills were up to the task.  It is a beautiful wood, but too expensive for practicing my woodturning.

My skills had been steadily improving this past year so I decided to go for it.  Once I got going, I was able to rapidly (ok - rapid is a relative term since I am sure I was quite slow compared to many other turners in my local woodturning clubs) define the shape and get my bowl to its finished shape.  Just a little bit of sanding and a few coats of lacquer and in less than 6 hours I had gone from a hunk of wood to a beautiful bowl that my wife would be delighted to place on the mantel above the fireplace.

I think the bowl turned out great.  I need to do a little buffing yet to really get the finish completed, but overall, the wife was extremely delighted.

All did not go without a hitch though.  It turns out that I am allergic to either the wood or something that was in the wood.  When turning, wood chips are flying everywhere.  The get in your shirt, in your face and hair and even like to nestle in the little crevice behind the ear.  While I was turning, I noticed that I was getting a little itch behind my right ear.  I didn't think anything of it.  I brushed away the  wood chips and dust and continued turning.  As the afternoon wore on, the itch turned into a mild burning.  My ear was definitely getting a little sensitive, but I persevered.

Well, after the better part of an afternoon I finished my task and had a bowl worthy of a Christmas gift to my wife.  When I went upstairs to shower up, I noticed that I had a rash and hives all over my face and a little bit on my hands.  It didn't appear too bad so I didn't think too much of it.  By the next morning, my hands and face were on fire.  I had developed large blisters behind both ears and I was in pretty bad shape.  For the next week I struggled to heal from what appeared to be a bad bout of poison ivy.  My hands had gotten so bad that I could barely type.  Fortunately, after about 6 days, most of the blisters and hives had disappeared, leaving a few itchy patches, a little swelling and some nasty looking red blotches on my hands.

This episode has taught me that I need to pay better attention to what is going on when I am turning.  I love working with exotic woods, but since I know I have a wide range of plant allergies, it would probably be prudent to take more safety precautions and wear more protective gear when working with new woods.  Thank goodness that it wasn't any more serious.