Zee Smith-Patrick: My hobby in woodwork and the creations I’ve made (BSL)

My name is Zee Smith-Patrick and I am based in North Nottinghamshire. I am Deaf and I communicate using both BSL and spoken english.

I would like to tell you about my hobby which is woodwork. I have made most of the furniture in our house and have converted 5 campervans using my skills and knowledge of woodworking and electrics.

I first got involved in woodwork when I lived at my parents house. I have always been interested in making/drawings things and when I was a child I would often create projects from my favourite TV shows such as the Big Bang and Art Attack.

I liked to fix things around the house and build toys for me and my brother. I built a bow and arrow, an air canon, elastic band gun and lots of other things for us to play with… and argue over!

When I moved into my own home I decided that a lot of the furniture I was looking to buy I could very easily make myself on a tight budget. I found some scaffolding boards in the garden and that’s when my passion for woodworking really took off. I like reusing material and giving it a new life as something else.

I have really been inspired by so many people especially on Youtube. My main inspirations are Laura Kampf, Frank Howarth, Michael All, Bourbon Moth Woodworking, Make with Miles, Adam Savage, Simone Giertz to name a few. They all are very individual with everything they make and produce which inspires me to be more of a unique woodworker.

I learn visually, so being able to see things being made rather than having to follow instructions really helps me have confidence to make the projects I see.

There have been plenty of challenges that the hobby comes with! One of the main challenges is simply just keeping everything square.

Other challenges would be making my workshop usable in the limited space I have, sometimes the weather doesn’t help if it is raining as it means I have to work inside and it’s more cramped.

Regarding the misconceptions people have about woodwork it seems the hobby/Trade is a very male oriented world and I feel that seeing someone who doesn’t fit this stereotype doing woodwork leaves them open to criticism that the job will not be done to a good standard.

It is also rare to see someone with a disability in the hobby/trade. The only Deaf representation I have seen was on Season 2 of Channel 4 Handmade: Britain’s best woodworker (Dafydd.)

I would like to see more Deaf representation in woodwork and I am interested in finding people to work with. I would like to find or create a Deaf friendly woodworking environment. It can be a lonely hobby and I feel like it would be great to learn from other people who have the same hobby and interest.

One of my favourite creations so far was creating a wooden bench for my wife from a very precious piece of wood that her Grandad used for gardening. It clearly had a lot of memories for her and I was happy to create something that could be used once again in a practical way.

Another creation is in my workshop, I made a French cleats system which is a well known way to store and make all the tools so that they are visible and easy to access.

I’m now starting to try a technique called patterned ply – it uses the layers of stripes on the ply to create patterns and make sheets to be able to use in projects to add another layer of detail. It’s more complicated than it looks!

If someone would like to try this hobby my advice would be to try handtools first and get used to how they work before moving on to machinery as this can have a lot more risk involved.

It gives you a really good feeling when you can look at something and know it has a story about how it was made, rather than something you just bought from a shop.

I would tell anyone to give it a go – you will be able to make things that are special to you and feel proud of the time and effort you put into making them.

By Zee Smith-Patrick