*Do you think of designing as "part of the
work" or "part of the fun"?

.....I probably often started by looking at the
woodpile...lol. * Feel free to put your own spin on the question.

Bill

Inspiration comes from many places. Often I see something I want to
reproduce. Often a glance at the wood pile inspires and I do a quick
sketch and start cutting. Often I take weeks (or more) doing
variations of a design to get it just right.

One note, is anything on paper does not convey scale and 5 minutes
slicing cardboard to mock up the actual size of something can be very
instructive. I designed a plant stand that once instantiated in wood
was too big to even be sold as a lecturn.

As an FYI, I often find myself usingthe Agile method (which we use in
SW design in my real job) on my wood projects where design refines
over time during creation.