How I take a design from a vague idea to a carved, painted and oiled display on my WorkBee CNC, using a footprints piece as the example.

Emma and I made our first epoxy resin river piece, a laptop tray from reclaimed sycamore, and learned where the resin goes when boards aren't flat.

Robot clones, a whirlpool in a bottle, the quiz game I should have made, and a plywood display box: my earliest memories of making things.

This Christmas I made oak beer flight paddles for friends and family, and bought half of Aldi's tool aisle along the way.

I've bought 13 tools from Aldi's middle aisle and only had a problem with one. Here's why I'm happy to recommend Workzone and Ferrex.

I built an outdoor dining table from 2x4s for under our pergola, despite a cracked mitre saw and my first go with a pocket hole jig.

I laser cut The Interlace Project's open source frame loom at Cheltenham Hackspace for Emma, for the princely sum of £3.60.

My friend Emma has started weaving on the inkle loom I built her, and sent me photos of her progress over WhatsApp.

A year after moving in, my shed has evolved into a proper workshop, thanks to my parents. Here's how it went up over a week.

My first commission: an inkle loom for a friend, with wonky lap joints, a routed slot and a lot of Gorilla glue.