My dad’s toolbox

Months ago, I was asked by a photographer friend of mine, Joakim Blockstrom, to contribute to his ‘Heirloom Project’. Joakim photographs heirlooms, special things that have been passed down through families and that have a special meaning to the person now in possession of them.
I asked that he photographed my father’s toolbox, which strikes a very personal note with me. Yesterday in the Guardian newspaper, the project rightly got more recognition, when the newspaper published some of the entries in it’s Family section. Here’s a link if you’d like to see some of the entries and read about the project.
For me, making something that is good enough for your family to use every day, goes right to the heart of what heirlooms are. That home-made piece of furniture, with all it’s quirks, maybe a few mistakes. Years on, hopefully it’s still surviving, but with the added patina of use, the wear from everyone’s bum, the lost paint from the inevitable knocks. Then one day someone asks, ‘do you want this? We don’t use it enough any more’. And the reply, ‘yes, of course, I remember when dad made that’