I was asked recently whether a stool like the one I just posted takes a long time to make. The answer is no and yes. If I have a piece of wood wide enough for a seat (or have already glued one up) I can go from boards to assembly in a fat half a day. But then the glue has to dry overnight before I can trim and level the stool, and there are 2 colors of milk paint with 1-3 coats each, plus 2-3 coats of oil/wax… so if I start work Monday morning I can have a stool-like object by early afternoon that I still may not be able to take to a market on Saturday.

Not to mention my inner sense of how long things take has more to do with effort than with actual time, so I am constantly fooled—in both directions.