1) Girls have LOTS of friends and those friends have birthdays
2) Ballet is just part of daily life(duh)
With these two things established it should come as no surprise that the two would one day overlap. That day is now upon me, and has manifested itself in this simple, almost offhand remark by my wife:
"I want you to build a ballet bar for Xyz (obviously not the child's real name)"
Next thing you know I'm in the shop with a little design on the fly. The first thing I need to know are the rough dimensions I have to work with. My willing assistant (my six year old daughter) demonstrates the approximate hand position on an imaginary bar as I measure. Because I so despise "disposable" items (we have quite enough of those in this world without me adding to them), I design for the long haul, the nest generation at least. In this instance that translates to an adjustable bar that can grow with the child. The final element is that the item must be portable and easily assembled and disassembled.
After working though the required elements its on to the fun part. Because this bar will be used by a three year old I felt that keeping it light and slightly whimsical was the right direction. This, to my daughter, meant "painting it white and pink". Not what I had in mind. Using two or three different wood species (Red Oak, African Mahogany and Yellow Pine) would break up the piece and make it more playful, and, since it is a ballet bar, a "slipper foot" element seemed appropriate.
Because this was Thursday and the party was on Saturday, the build was on the fly too. I mocked up a rough pattern in cardboard, marked the wood and started cutting. The design evolved as I was going, a little tweak here and there until it looked about right.
As with most projects, especially these on the fly ones, you look back with a critical eye and think of the million things you would do differently next time. Luckily for me I have two little ballerinas of my own, so next time wont be too far away.
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