Blog Party Thursday, May 6, 2010

Alrighty! I've missed a few blog parties lately because of a bout of the flu which ran through my whole family. But I'm back now with some new items for you to look through.

Also, a big "Thank you!!!" to Kim over at Everything Etsy for hosting this event every Thursday. You're a doll!

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This is a pair of Curly Maple with Purple Heart candle holders, the first pair in a new style. All of the candle holders you'll see here today are in this style, with rounded edges, made of two or three contrasting woods and sold in pairs.

This pair is Black Walnut with Purple Heart.

This is Curly Maple with Purple Heart and Black Walnut.

This pair is Black Walnut with Yellow Heart.

And this is Yellow Heart with Black Walnut.

Here is a beautiful pair, made of Spalted Pecan and Black Walnut.

This style was in my head for a couple of months whilst I was planning and building my router table. As soon as it was up and running there was no reason to wait any longer, so I started putting different types of wood together to see what cool combinations I could come up, and here are the early results. Very soon I'll be driving out to see my sawyer so I can add more variety to the mix.

Keep in mind that all of these candle holders and lots more are for sale, folks. And if you mention the I Made It Blog Party I'll refund the shipping cost.

Meals on Wheels Benefit Show, Mineral Wells, Texas

On the 14th of March, 2009, Debra and I attended the Meals on Wheels benefit show in Mineral Wells, Texas. We took all my candle holders and most of my T-shirts, and we attracted a lot of attention. Very little of that attention was from customers, but we made out just fine anyway.

This craft show was designed to benefit Meals on Wheels of Mineral Wells. Unfortunately it rained for four days leading up to the show, which was held at the local rodeo arena, which has a dirt parking lot, which turns into a lake of fine, silty mud 1 to 3 inches deep in the rain. Not the ideal situation to encourage folks to take time out of their busy weekends for the purpose of buying candle holders and tie dyed t-shirts.

When we arrived, our Honda Element was reasonably clean. Driving the 50 yards from the street to the building was all it took to change that. And it took a pressure hose and lots of elbow grease to get it clean a few days later.

They let us drive right into the arena, set up wherever we wanted, and then we parked the truck outside and got to work arranging our merchandise in the most eye-catching manner possible.

A couple of days before the show we bought a 5 foot long table that folds in the middle. It fits behind the back seat of our truck. It worked out great, so we'll be purchasing another one soon, probably before the next First Monday show in Weatherford, Texas. We need the second table so we don't have to use the two saw horses you can see in this photo. Beautiful, ain't they?

As the day wore on, some of the venders left so we moved our tables. Twice, actually. We ended up right beside a vender we'll probably be dealing with for years to come.

We didn't make one red cent at the show. We actually lost money because we bought three candles from a great vender called Brown Sugar Antiques, and we bought our lunch. But we did get to listen to some truly horrific Karaoke that made me want to run a rusty ice pick through both my eardrums, so it all evened out.

Among the items that were being auctioned that night was a guitar signed by Willy Nelson. Also on hand was a Willy Nelson look-a-like. It was interesting seeing this guy just walk in, unannounced, and begin inspecting everyone's shops. It was funny to see people's reactions.

As I said, we didn't make any money at this show, but we picked up two jobs, possibly a third. I'll be selling three dozen t-shirts to one guy, and Brown Sugar Antiques wants to do some business with me as well. I'll probably be designing a candle holder just for the candles they sell, wholesale that to them, and they will be making a small scented candle as a refill for the ones I sell with my candle holders and I'll send all my clients to them. Their candles smell great even after burning them for two weeks.

Next weekend is the April show in Weatherford. I'll update that event right here after we get back.

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First Monday, part four

Wow... it was really cold and windy in Weatherford, Texas, last weekend. Seriously cold! Apparently the good people of Weatherford thought so as well. I know they didn't turn out to buy anything.

Friday we got our tables set up in space # K25. Next to us in K24 was a guy known as "Cowboy" who makes furniture and picture frames out of reclaimed wood, mostly from demolished barns and fences. We were the only two people under the pavilion and were all the way on the other end of it from the nearest booth, a metal sculpture guy who was setting up all day against the fence out by the road. And we sat there all day staring at the ground, reading, talking... certainly not selling. A grand total of six people dropped by our booth, and one of those was under five years of age.

The good news is that we figured out the best way to set up and display our wares.

Saturday the wind was high and it was below freezing until almost noon. I'm fairly certain I lost a couple of important body parts to frost bite. We set up on the ground this time so potential customers would have more room to move about and take a look at everything. The only problem was that, other than Cowboy, we were still the only people on our side of the pavilion, and since we were facing away from the rest of the venders, and were partially shielded by the pavilion itself, no one could tell we were there.

I talked to the nice ladies at the office and changed our location to the other end and other side of the pavilion, next to Rachel, a friend of mine who makes handmade tiles. She has a great Etsy shop called TileSmile. With a little tweaking we have arranged to have similar spaces near each other for the next few months. And we want to get the pavilion filled with artists, so come on out if you fit that description. And if you don't fit that description, come on out anyway and buy something from one of us. You'll be glad you did, and you'll probably get a really good deal.

It was still really cold all day Saturday. Most people were just rushing around trying to stay warm, which makes you wonder why they were walking around in the 35 mph wind in the first place. We had 25 or 30 people stop by our booth and we made one sale. But we saw enough to realize it will be much better as the weather gets warmer.

I took a short walk through the rest of the booths around lunch-time. There was the usual mix of crap and art, and people were buying the crap because it was cheap. I think they were just buying something to justify walking around in the bitter north wind.

During the day we found out about another show in Mineral Wells on March 14, this one benefitting Meals on Wheels. It costs us nothing for booth space but they are asking for either a donation at the end of the day or a donation of an item for their auction that evening. I spent part of yesterday and today building two candle holders to donate. They are both one-of-a-kind.

And so our adventures in craft shows have begun. At the end of this week our local school will be on Spring Break and Debra and I will be in Mineral wells, indoors, selling candle holders, bookends, wine rests, and maybe a few T-shirts. And I'll let you know how that goes.

•••••

If you make Handmade Home Decor Items, come and join our team by clicking on the image below.

Not only will you be able to network with us, but also you will have the ability to post your listing on our team website.

First Monday, part three

Only one more day until we go to Weatherford for First Monday Trade Days. Events have conspired to prevent me from producing as many pieces as I would have liked, but I'll still be taking over 100 candle holders and bookends to the sale. Just over, but still...

I was able to take ten mesquite candle holders all the way through the finishing process in one day today. That is not generally thought of as a good idea, but it was just sunny and warm enough to pull it off, without being too warm. Tomorrow I will complete the finish on some curly maple candle holders and I'll be done with the manufacturing for this show.

I have one more sign to design, and I have to affix two signs to a small billboard I built a couple of days ago. After that I only have to pick up a table we're renting and load the truck and we'll be ready to go. I will post the concluding chapter of this little saga, along with photos from the show, after our return Saturday evening... and by "after" I probably mean Sunday or Monday. Right now I need to rehab my knee. I tripped over a box of candle holders here in my office earlier and landed on my right knee. It's swollen and it hurts, but I'll recover fast.

First Monday, part two

I now have 90 pieces ready to go to Weatherford for First Monday Trade Days. I should have at least 50 more ready by February 27 & 28.

I'm also working on signage for the event. And I need an 8 foot table. I may have to rent the table. I could build one but it would be difficult to transport to the site.

I'm getting a trailer soon, and that will make things much easier, but right now I don't have it so I need to figure out a work-around.

My First Monday

There's this thing we have around north Texas. Various cities have Trade Days. "First Monday...", "Second Monday...", "Fifth President's Day...", whatever it is, they have them. I'm sure this isn't unique to north Texas.

Some members of Etsy Texas Crafters have proposed getting several booths in the same area at the First Monday Trade Days in Weatherford, Texas. The price for a booth is very reasonable, so I'm planning to go. This means I have about two weeks left to prepare.

I wish I could round up some members of Design Style Guide to go with me, but we're spread all over the globe. There are several of us in Texas, though, so maybe I can arrange something for the following month. It has been my experience that DSG members are both willing and able to help with just about any project.

Generally speaking, when I build items to sell at Etsy I can get away with producing four or five of a single design. When I sell out I can either produce more or design something new. The only real exceptions to that are bookends and wine rests; I have a large number of both of them in stock. So now I have to stock up for a big show, and I must build multiple numbers of several designs. With all the other things I have to do I'd better get my butt in gear.

I found a short length of Alowood Cherry and decided to make a few candle holders out of it. Alowood is a partially engineered product. They take some wood (Pine? Maple? Chinaberry? Who knows?) and run it through a process that both colors the wood whatever color they want so it looks like something more expensive and hardens it, making it more stable. It works like a softer maple, the color goes all the way through and the company claims they are preserving our hardwood forests by making this out of some unidentified lesser wood that is not in short supply. All I know is this chunk of wood looks good, didn't cost much, and it yielded six beautiful candle holders.

I came up with a different design for these. There are no feet on the bottom.  Instead, there is a single short pedestal positioned at a 45º angle across the bottom of each fake cherry candle holder. I like this design because it takes less time to build and I can clamp up a whole bunch of them at the same time by securing them to the top of my bench. With the other design the four feet have to be clamped separately and I run out of clamps in a hurry.

I like this design so much I built ten more candle holders out of some scrap pine I had in the shop. They'll look great when I stain and finish them. My wife likes this design because she thinks it has a bit more elegance to it than the four-legged variety. She may be right. It will be interesting to see which design sells best when the customers can see them side-by-side.

Additionally, I have built ten new cherry candle holders and ten cedar candle holders in the regular style. I have a short piece of red heart I can use to make a couple more candles holders and a longer chunk of mesquite with which to do the same.

The majority of the pieces I take to this show will be made of pine. I can sell them for less than most hardwoods and they still look wonderful, so the customers should scoop them up in a hurry. I'd better stop typing and start making sawdust.

What I've Been Doing

I haven't posted here as often as I'd planned. For that I apologize, mostly to myself. My plan was to have something new here at least once per week, but that hasn't happened.

In October of last year I wrote a piece called "The Drawers of the World..." in which I discussed a job I had picked up building some cabinets for a garage workshop for a friend of mine. I had planned to finish that job and get moving on two other projects he wanted me to build, and have it all finished before the end of the year. Well, I delivered the cabinets last weekend.

A number of things happened, including being called to substitute teach more than anticipated at the beginning of a semester, taking care of my mother and grandmother when needed, the suicide of one of my son's classmates... it all adds up to the job taking longer than I wanted. The main problem, however, was me.

I should amend that last statement. The main problem was the intersection between me and the drawers I was using for this project. My friend, Clay, had these old drawers lying around taking up space and he asked if I could use them, all eight of them, in the design. I said I could, and that should have been that. He wanted me to use standard-issue side mounted drawer slides. He wasn't the least bit interested in having the cabinets look attractive so long as they were sturdy and functional. Again, I told him I could deliver what he wanted, and that should have been the end of the discussion.

I built the framework of the cabinets out of standard two by fours the keep the cost down and to provide a heavy, sturdy base for the workstation. I walled the cabinets in with half-inch birch plywood, giving one of them an extra, inner wall to support the narrower drawers on that side. I installed the hardware for the drawer slides inside the cabinets. I installed the mating hardware for the drawer slides on the drawers. And I cussed and pulled my hair for a couple of weeks.

What I didn't anticipate was the construction of the drawers themselves. We don't really know how old they are, but they were part of a built-in unit that was in the house when my friend, Clay, bought it. The house is around 70 years old so, for all we know, the drawers could be that old as well. However old they are the one thing that's certain is they were built without the use of a straight-edge. Or a square of any kind. It's possible they were built be someone on the verge of losing his sight but too embarrassed to admit it.

The drawers didn't fit. If they fit in the front, they didn't fit in the back. If they fit in the back they would fit in the front. The slides are designed to compensate for minor variations in size and I had taken that into account when I built the cabinets. I should have examined the drawers more closely before starting, but they were in a stack in the corner of my small shop and I just never thought to pull them all out.

One other thing: I don't have much experience with moving parts. It's a learning curve, and I'm gaining altitude, but when I started this project I really needed more experience with drawers than I had at the time. It took some down time to figure out exactly how to shim the drawer slide parts to make them fit because the space I left for myself was so tight, but I plowed on through to the end.

I finally finished the project and delivered it. Clay is very happy with it. And I will not turn down another project of it's kind. I will, however, remember the lessons I learned.

During the times I was scratching my head, trying to decide how to proceed, I worked on a few other projects, including the large and small cherry candle holders you see here, and which you can purchase at my Etsy shop if you so desire. There are no photos of the cabinets as of yet. The next time I'm at Clay's house I'll take a few pictures of them. While they were in my shop I really wasn't in the mood for photos. I wasn't in much of a mood to blog, either, as it turns out.

Candles for Charity

Our local junior high school is the hub for all the "Santa's Helpers" activity in this community. Our gym hosts the evening when all the gifts and supplies are passed out to the families in need. The choir sings, there are soft drinks and punch available and families go home with new coats, socks, shoes, blankets, food, and toys for the little kids. It's a nice evening.

This year there's a raffle for a gift basket at the junior high with all the proceeds going to Santa's Helpers. And I have built two small candle holders to go in the basket. My deadline for this is Friday, November 14, but it's already finished and ready to go tomorrow morning.

My wood of choice for this project was mesquite. I wanted to do something with a southwestern theme and, since I don't trick up my designs very much but leave the natural beauty of the wood intact, mesquite seemed to be the obvious choice. And I had a little less than one board foot of it in my shop.

These are small candle holders, measuring 5" x 5" and only 4" to the top of the candles. Someone will enjoy them for themselves or will give them to a friend or family member for Christmas. And the money from the raffle will help other families through another north Texas winter. 

Now I have to buy some more mesquite and build a few more of these. I think they'll sell like hot cakes, which is ironic because the hot cakes really aren't moving.

Of Wine Rests and Candle Holders

The other day I was inspired to get in my shop and build as many Wine Rests as I could carve out of one piece of pine. Well, that turned out to be 15, but I decided to add another pine candle holder to the inventory whilst I had the table saw set up anyway, so I ended up with 11 new Wine Rests and one new candle holder. That is to say I will have that many as soon as I'm done shaping, gluing (candle holder only), staining and finishing them, which should be sometime around Friday afternoon.

That was a lot of fun. I had to vacuum the sawdust three times!!!