IT TAKES A TEAM
Hugh McCarroll
WRITER
I started very young
I was into DIY before it was a thing. I admired people who could make stuff, do stuff, and fix things. As a little boy I wanted to help any tradesman who came to the house to do jobs.
My uncle Gordon was my first mentor. He was a motor mechanic, and I remember helping him when he was repairing a car-door locking mechanism that had been damaged by thieves. He also did beautiful woodwork. However, I remember mostly his laconic humour and endless patience. He taught me to drive, too.
Another mentor was my friend Pete’s father, Neville. I learnt a lot helping him and Pete build a lounge extension to their house when I was a teenager. He was a teacher at Petone Tech, and also had endless patience.
Mum found her skills
My mother, Nance, was a milliner who could make beautiful hats and headdresses out of almost anything. I remember making wire frames for some of her creations. She was raised to be ‘a lady’ and only discovered her artisan skills in middle life. Some of her creations are still being used by the Wellington Operatic Society and other theatre groups in Wellington — more than 30 years after she died. At intermediate school, I felt right at home with woodwork and metalwork, and I was quite good at both. In woodwork I discovered technical drawing, and also loved that. I started my working life on a drawing board — the major downside with CAD is not being able to lean on the board!
“Of all the people I dealt with over the years, I enjoyed the company of trades staff and practical people the most”
I got an engineering degree from the University of Canterbury and went into the aviation industry, initially as a graduate engineer, but spent most of my career in management, which I did not really enjoy. Of all the people I dealt with over the years, I enjoyed the company of trades staff and practical people the most.
My retirement dream was to be a hands-on engineer again, and I've never been happier than since I retired 15 years ago. I’ve got my engineering workshop, my woodwork shop, my CAD system, and my 3D printer. I still like making stuff and fixing stuff.
I join The Shed team
In 2011, I built a personal scaffold and sent an article about it to Terry Snow — then editor of The Shed magazine. It became the issue 37 cover story. I have lost count of the number of articles I’ve written since then, but as long as they are being accepted I’ll keep writing them. I’ve just finished making a jigsaw puzzle table for my daughter — it’s got drawers so a half-finished puzzle can be stored away and completed later. I’ll write something about that project.
At present I’m enjoying The Repair Shop, a British TV programme that showcases the skills of a group of craftspeople who repair family heirlooms. It shows the delights of bookbinding, clock repairing, gilding, joinery, leather working, and many other artisan skills. I wish they’d go a bit slower and explain some of the processes to a level that would encourage viewers to try it themselves.
Some of the trades have been overtaken by technology — there’s not much call for typesetters and coopers, for example — and many are threatened by today’s throwaway culture, but it would be a tragedy if the old artisanal abilities died.
Nowadays, there are skills that didn’t exist even a few decades ago, and artisans need to keep up with computer-driven lathes, milling machines, laser cutters, and the other smart machines. I’m learning to implement an Arduino board into a project at the moment, and it’s good fun, but sometimes I wish I had a mentor to talk to.
Everybody needs a mentor.
Brian High
PHOTOGRAPHER
“I just like meeting interesting people and seeing what they
