I recently came across this profile on Leonard Olson of The Kaleidoscope Factory: Kaleidoscope maker sees life metaphor in changing images.
The simple beauty of the kaleidoscope first captured Leonard Olson’s attention in 1997, when at age 44, he had a heart attack that led to bypass surgery.
During his hospital stay, friends brought him a kaleidoscope to cheer him up. He adopted woodworking as a hobby during his recovery. He didn’t know at the time that the two would come together to inspire his current career, one that gives him more joy and far less stress than the employee benefits business he runs in Colorado.
For Olson, kaleidoscopes now provide a valuable metaphor for life and how quickly it can change.
“Just when you think you’ve encountered the most beautiful image possible in a kaleidoscope, a slight shift will change everything,” he writes on his Web site. “At first, you may feel very disappointed … however, while different, the new image is also beautiful and you discover that more changes will produce still more beautiful images.”
Each of Olson’s kaleidoscopes designs, about 10 of them, are different from the others. While he buys some of the components – brass, glass and acrylic – he crafts the wooden parts in his shop. No templates, no patterns and pure tung oil to finish. He says his tools aren’t the best, but he puts a lot of care into his craft.