The Restory Retreat Centre

More About George If I want to tell more about myself, the very best might be to just start by saying "I love..." and then list things that I love. So: I love...... ....Tafelkop. The big world of which I am a part, silence and to walk. The Conversation ...time spent with my M. Where we talk for long stretches, and laugh, or are just quiet together for long periods of time. Elements From The Conversation ....our granddaughter, Ariana. Who loves books very much and keeps asking: "Oupa, tell me a silly story!" ....books. And dogs. And cats. And tea. ....a good conversation. Sculpting and woodwork. To write. ....poems. More so by the day. Basically impossible to pick a single one, but on my birthday, this one from Billy Collins. It talks about things one thinks about at 60. Design I pour a coating of salt on the table and make a circle in it with my finger. This is the cycle of life I say to no one. This is the wheel of fortune, the Arctic Circle. This is the ring of Ke...

The furniture I am making for our new granddaughter fascinates and puzzles Skhumbuzo. His two nephews living with them in the house are almost 3 years old and they are still sleeping with their mothers. No cribs or special chairs or cupboards. While I am making the rocking chair he looks at the components taking shape and the plans lying on the work table. “This is so beautiful. And strong! But what do you use this chair for?” “The mother sits in this chair with the baby in her arms and when it goes backwards and forwards, the baby goes to sleep easily. It is a rocking chair.” “That is so clever. I think it will also help with the feeding. Every time the chair with the mother goes forward the milk of the mother will flow quickly into the baby’s mouth.” I haven’t looked at it that way. Nowhere did I take the theory on the momentum of mother’s milk into consideration.  Perhaps I should have designed the chair with a brake of sorts. After all, a pitch...

Photograph by George Angus Photograph by George Angus Next on our renovation list is the small scullery. That will be done through upcycling and the use of appliances that became redundant when friends renovated their homes. To borrow from Ernest Rutherford: “We don’t have money, so we have to think.”  In other words, be creative. To install the upcycled sink, I’ll have to reroute the plumbing. But in order to do that I must remove the old dilapidated cupboard that’s currently doing service in the scullery (It was previously in the bathroom, but we moved it when we created two new bathrooms). But in order to do that, we must find storage space for the linen we keep in there. And in order to do that I had to build a new cupboard for the kitchen.  It’s like operating on tonsils by pulling toe nails. There’s method in madness. That’s where “ Oupa George se kas ” (Grandpa George’s cupboard)  comes in. It must be at least 65 years old, built in t...

Vuzi, one of the cattle herders working for our landlord Johan, wants a TV cabinet. Actually, in his words, he needs it. “OK Vuzi, what must it look like?” “No, you are the carpenter, you must make me one.” “I cannot make you one if I don’t know what you have in mind.” “It must be a TV cabinet.” “Yes I know Vuzi, but do you only want your TV in that cabinet, or are you going to put other stuff in there as well? You must make me a drawing. It can be very basic, just so that I can see what you want.” A week later he returns with the drawing on a small piece of paper. There are no measurements or dimensions. The television obviously has centre stage, but there must also be room for his “cloth” speakers (apparently they are upholstered with material) on the sides, his dvd’s on a shelf at the top and the amplifier on a shelf at the bottom. “Thank you Vuzi. How big is your TV? And the size of your speakers and amplifier?” “It is a big TV. And the speakers are also big.” “OK,...

Foto deur Matilda Angus ‘n Bakkie wat ek onlangs uit American Elm gedraai het. Ek leer aanhoudend nuwe name terwyl ek met hout werk. Die Engelse name van hout en bome is oor die algemeen meer bekend. Telkens weet ek nie wat dit in Afrikaans is nie en moet dit gaan opsoek. Dis woorde wat vir my mooi op die tong lê. American Elm is Amerikaanse iep of olm. Hickory is Amerikaanse okkerneuthout, Maple – esdoring, Yew - taksusboom, Ash – essehout, Holly – huls, Birch - berkeboom, Larch – lorkeboom, Spruce – denneboom (kan jy glo!), Beech – beukehout en ook boekenhout. Daar is egter ook name van Suid-Afrikaanse houtsoorte wat net nie hul lê in Engels kan kry nie – ysterhout, olienhout, hardepeer, stinkhout, kiaat (wat nie dieselfde as teak is nie), blinkblaar wag-'n-bietjie. Om nie eens van Afrika-, Asiatiese en Australiese houtsoorte te praat nie – Karri, Tatajuba, Panga-Panga, Masuranduba, Merbau, Jarrah, Cocobolo. Buitestaanders sien die stukke vorm aanneem op die draaibank....

Detail of bed in Kiaat, made by George Angus (Photograph by Matilda Angus)       "Fine things in wood are important, not only aesthetically, as oddities or rarities, but because we are becoming aware of the fact that much of life is spent buying and discarding, and buying again, things that are not good. Some of us long to have at least something, somewhere, which will give us harmony and a sense of durability - I won't say permanence, but durability - things that, through the years, become more and more beautiful, things we can leave to our children."                                                                      James Kre...

In previous posts I wrote about the table I was busy restoring. After finishing the project in August last year I never got around to taking pictures of the final result. Shame on me! And as some of you recently asked about the project, Matilda took some pictures of it last week.  To recap: On arrival in the workshop ( Beauty longing ) A work in progress ( Beauty longing - Part 2 ) And finally Its place is in a dining room and not a chicken abattoir, don’t you think?  George

Photograph by George Angus This coming weekend we have our first mindfulness retreat here at Barrowfield. Earlier this week the one motor of the planer thicknesser burnt out. A major crisis. I am right in the middle of a big woodworking project and working with a very tight budget after December’s quiet and bonuses that were paid out to the employees. I knew for a fact that the motor either had to be replaced by a new one or if I am lucky it could be repaired. Either way, the project is delayed by days and money has to be spent. Lately Matilda and I often talk about the wide-spread perception that mindfulness and reality clash. A large number of people believe that the two actually just don’t go together: “Interesting, this mindfulness-thing you’re busy with. Maybe I’ll look into that when I’m retired and have more time. For now I do not have that luxury. I have to provide for my family and work hard to earn a living.” We do not have to quit our day job to be min...

“Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about.”                                                                             G.K. Chesterton We are busy renovating our 104 year old house. The main focus at this stage is the bathroom. At the time the house was originally built people didn’t have inside bathrooms. They had an outdoor toilet and they usually washed in their bedrooms using a pitcher of water and a bowl. From time to time they would carry a tub into the kitchen, heat water on the stove and take a bath. No easy process!  That being the case you can see how, over time and with the development of ...

OK, in order to get the bigger picture and compare the "before" and "after" you have to go back to the post Beauty longing . I was busy restoring the huge old dining room table. Oregon with teak legs was my guess at that stage. This is my first big woodworking commission since we have moved to Barrowfield. In order to complete it I had to do quite a lot of repairs on the machinery that would be needed in the process. The belt sander got damaged during the move. I welded the cast iron table where it broke at the base. Two weeks before our move down here, they broke into my workshop at Rietfontein and stole the electrical motor with its particular bracket off my table saw. It was no mean feat to replace it. In the process I got to know most of the electrical suppliers in Newcastle, drove to Alberton to get the bracket components, made adjustments to that and put in a bigger circuit breaker at the distribution box as the new motor kept tripping the previous one. ...

I have somewhat of a problem. There are no hardwood merchants in any of the local towns within a 300 km radius. For one of my projects I make bases for the ceramic lamps Eylene, Matilda’s daughter, is creating. Fortunately I have a fairly large wood pile gathered over the years that provided most of what I needed, but the one particular base asked for something more bulky. While gently mulling over a few of my plans in getting the wood, I went on a Sunday picnic with Matilda and my father down at the stream running through the farm. There I discovered this huge old tree trunk, felled by a storm years ago. The following week I strolled down with the dogs and cut myself a nice piece of wood. Then I went home and turned the base. It looks real nice. This young tortoise comes home all bruised and battered. “What happened to you?” asks his mother. “I was at the club and on my way out I bumped into this snail. “Watch where you’re going!” I told him. Two of his friends meanwh...

All the beauty that's been lost before wants to find us again.                                                                                                         U2, Ordinary Love  Our landlord Johan and his wife Debbie are destined to become our direct neighbours in a few months’ time. They are moving into the house of his late father close by which will make it easier for him to tend to the cattle side of their farming activities. At this stage the old house is being renovated.  By mere coincidence Debbie recently got an old table back that has been in the family for generations and was given to friends years ago. The size of the table (2.75 m x 1.14 m) provided an ideal surface to work on in the ch...

Photograph by George Angus The men were eager to get started and engage in the work.                                                                                               Exodus 36:2 (The Message) Last week I finished the Versailles planter (some call it a Versailles tub as well) I made for a prospective client through the inspiration of our friend Sonja . I used Saligna for its durability and stability. The design is a fine example of complicated simplicity. The end result exhibits these elegant clean l...

It was at the end of the 1990’s that I started setting up my woodworking workshop. At that stage I bought second hand machines and overhauled them over time while I was busy farming and working with my dad in the engineering workshop. My idea was to start with the basics and gradually build it up from there. It was interesting, reading up on articles from a variety of woodworking magazines, what was regarded as “the basics”. Some said a table saw and a planer-thicknesser. Others thought you could not be without a band saw or a router. To a novice like me it was confusing and in some ways debilitating. Quite often during that period I said to myself that I could only start thinking of any project once I had the right machines and the ideal workshop. Which meant that it took a long time for me to actually put my hands on a piece of wood and make something, because for a long time I was under the impression that I didn’t have any of the two. Then one day, on a journey into town, I h...

 Some critics are of the opinion that a movie with a number in the title (Die Hard 6, Terminator 8, Rocky 9) is not worth watching. I was pondering that bias, but decided to stick to my title. Hopefully this is the first in a series of articles on restoration. I love restoring things. Anything. However, my love for wood tends to often nudge me in the direction of furniture. Restoration differs from making something totally new, from scratch, in the sense that with restoration the product is already there. You do not come with a design or plan and apply the wood accordingly. The challenge in restoration is to work with the given. To bow to the wood and the previous craftsman and do the work in such a way that the end product says something of your respect for them. That is done through all the stages – the stripping, dismantling, making of new parts, mending what is broken, applying the finish. For me restoration has a deep spiritual quality to it. It is the a...