For me the joy is definitely in the making.

I love envisioning, creating and eventually standing back and admiring the finished product.

I think part of the attraction (and why making stuff is so therapeutic for me) is that as a pastor/people-carer, I help build people and because we are all a work in progress until the day we die, I will never really see the finished product.

It’s no secret that I enjoy playing a friendly game of poker. Some good friends and I have been playing regularly for several years now.

Now, before any of you reading this freak out too much by the thought of a pastor playing poker – we don’t play for cash and our chip stacks all equal a small fortune made up of good times, great yarns and many gut-busting laugh – things that are precious and priceless.

A couple of years back I bought an old, abused poker table from Trademe, thinking that I could replace the cloth on it and it would be good as new. Unfortunately though, once the cloth was removed, I discovered that the chipboard was badly damaged due to copious beverages spilled. All that remained salvageable was the foldable legs.

I hatched a plan to build my own cheap and simple table. One thing led to another, and the end product was not cheap (when you add up the man-hours involved), and definitely was not simple.

It was a monster, but it was a beautiful monster.

I ended up selling it as I do with most things I make.

For me the joy is definitely in the making.

The video below is a slideshow of the table at various stages of its construction.