Workshop

Dim and dusty, the darkness sliced away by shafts of light coming from windows and skylights, a divine lighting, the particles in the air giving definition to the pillars of light solid enough to support weight. The sweet smell of lacquer - nitrocellulose - poisonous and carcinogenic, milky white and thick like sugar water, nauseating and rich. Tung oil, woody, thick, and slippery. Spruce and cedar and oak, smooth and raw, white, unprotected, the grain impossibly complex and unique. I sharpen a chisel on a stone until I can cut paper, and carve away translucent curls of wood, wispy and delicate.