Kristian Frazer's Hobbies

Here at Orange City Life, we love meeting people with a passion for what they do, whether it is art, woodwork, knitting, sport — whatever activity it is that brings you joy.

A lot of you out there may be finding yourselves with a bit more time on your hands at the moment — maybe time to get around to that passion project you’ve always wanted to work on but couldn’t enough hours in the day.

So, to inspire you, we thought we’d take a look at how others are finding creative ways to fill in their down time.

Kristian Fraser moved his young family to Orange about ten years ago to escape the grind of the daily commute in Sydney. Although still busy with full-time work as a data analyst and two school-aged boys, the move has meant Kristian has been able to find more time for his own projects.

“One of my first jobs as a kid out of school was a cabinet making apprenticeship,” said Kristian. “I actually completed my apprenticeship as a cabinet maker, but then the business I was working for folded and I lost my job.”

Looking around for work, Kristin found himself working in sales for a hardware store and on a career path that kept him off the tools. But that desire to create has never left him.

“I reckon it was basically only moving here to Orange that I really had the space and a consistent place to live where I could set up a workshop,” he said.

“So about nine years ago I started buying the larger machines, your table saws and your routers… I already had the hand skills and definitely had all the hand tools from my apprenticeship and so I started revisiting it all and making furniture for myself again.

“I've made helps of stuff for home; it is all furniture for my own house. I really enjoy getting out there and building, my wife really enjoys me getting out of her way and there's a little bit of a benefit at the end, we have some nice furniture.

“I enjoy the designing, I enjoy the problem solving, the process and the outcome. I have a desk I made, it is a beautiful table, and I sit at it every day now.”

The move to Orange also meant more outdoor space for Kristian and his family, space he is making the most of.

“I sell produce as well, but I would describe it more as a hobby than anything else,” he said.

“We bought a big block of land, stuck a house on the front of it and I thought this is a lovely patch of grass, let's do something else with it… I really just put something in the ground and if I have excess things, I'll then wander over to the Agrestic Grocer and say do you want to buy some extra bits and pieces. It kind of just grew.

“I'm actually a physical kind of guy generally... I sit down behind a computer for work, but your body wants to move. You get on your hands and knees and do weeding primarily because it is just good exercise it gets the blood pumping and all that stuff.”

And somehow, on top of all this, Kristian is finding time to also learn classical guitar.

“Playing badly! I 've been learning over the past year and a half. If I can't go outside and if I can't go in the garage, I go into one of the spare rooms and just play the guitar for a little while. It is ridiculously busy, but five or ten minutes each day doing this or that is just enough to keep it all going.

“Learning is central to how I keep on going it is life. I started as a retail salesperson and now I'm a data analyst. I've gone through marketing, I've gone through software development and project management all that sort of stuff… My mentality is, if I can't reinvent my skills once every five years then those skills will either become too specialised or redundant. An extension of that attitude is me learning guitar, doing my cabinet making, doing my vege growing — I'm also learning website development through TAFE online. So I feel you should never stop moving, always push forward, otherwise life gets really boring.”

Would you like to share your hobby with OC Life readers? We’d love to hear from you. Contact Jonathan on 63613575 or email jonathan@oclife.com.au