One of those days

Well, I had one of those days where things just fall into place and you can't really ask for more. Clayton scored a bunch of wood for me which I should be able to get my hands on soon and I connected with a kitchen decorating/supply store in town and will be making pieces to sell in their store. I took a mortar & pestle in that I made out of pear wood and the owner loved it. She was actually disappointed that I only had one for her to put on display and wants me to get more in ASAP. Needless to say, I came home and made 2 more that I'll take over in the next day or so after I apply the wood conditioner. She also wants bowls and other kitchen items-looks like I need to get moving! Unfortunately, I am now out of pear wood for the moment. (Anyone need a pear tree cut down? I'll be happy to do it if I can keep it-cherry, apple, maple, plum will also work)

That's about it for the moment. Have a great day & remember, pears taste great...pear wood, not so much.

First sale!

Well, I got my first sale! It was actually a custom order for a pilon (mortar & pestle). I made the mortar out of a block of hard maple and the pestle out of pear wood. They came out pretty darn good. I'll be making a few more to take to a couple of shops in town that sell kitchen stuff.

I also made a 'tip jar' and a "have a penny-leave a penny" cup for Carolines coffee shop here in town. http://www.carolinescoffee.com/
 They really liked them and I even got a free coffee for it! I'll be making more of them for other shops in town. (especially the coffee shops!) The tip jar is made up of several pieces of cedar laminated together and the penny cup is from a block of ash that a friend found in a yard he was doing some landscaping in. (thanks Clayton!) I was able to get a couple of pretty cool bowls from the block as well. We'll have them up on ETSY soon.

I'm going to be teaming up with my good friend Clayton, who does metal work, to make some unique outdoor furniture. He does some amazing design and metal sculpting. Together we should be able to create some real interesting pieces. We should have some preliminary designs in the next couple of weeks and the first pieces not too long after that. Pretty exciting stuff happening!

Have a great day and don't forget to ((hug)) your woodworker.

New project!

I got my first 'custom' order this weekend and you know what that means....I get to go to the wood store!! I need to find a nice piece(s) of hard wood for a mortar & pestle. Unfortunately, I don't have anything on hand for this one so it's a good excuse to go browse the shelves of a local supplier. My wife likens it to Imelda Marcos saying she's going to "just go look at shoes"! I guess if the shoe fits.....
I'll get some pics of this new project up as soon as possible.
Have a great day.

Bonsai bowl update

Success! I completed the bowl for my friends bonsai and I still have all my fingers and there are no new holes in the shop walls. I still have to apply a few coats of sealer, but the turning is complete. I'll get some good photos and upload them tomorrow, but for now I'm just happy that there was no visit to the ER today!
I also made a ring out of  some pear wood today. It turned out well, so I'll be making more of those. I'm going to try making some ear rings out of the pear wood, should be interesting.
Anyway, that's it for now.
Have a great day and remember wood is good.

Adding more items as we speak

Or rather as I type. Here is a preview:

It's been a couple of days since my last post, I've been busy in the shop making some new items. I should have several posted in the next day or so. My computer gnome who also happens to be my wonderful little photographer was off touring a college-looks like I might need to learn how to use the camera and up load stuff.

I got several pieces of a pear tree from a friend and just couldn't resist turning a bit of it. Not sure how long it has been curing, but it seems pretty stable to work with. I must say that this pear wood is BEAUTIFUL stuff! I've been using a new tool that I got on EBay and that pear wood cuts like butta! The ribbons coming off it while turning remind me of silly string shooting out of the can. I have to be careful and stop or I'll end up turning a 6" diameter piece into a pencil just to watch the ribbons flying off. So far with the pear wood I have a small bowl, small vase, 2 kids' bangles and 1 adult bangle (which I gave to my lovely wife as an early valentines day present-yep, scored some points with that one! Woohoo).
Tomorrow, I'll be trying to make a 4 1/2" deep x 14" diameter cedar bowl to be used for a bonsai tree. If all goes well,  the pieces I laminated together won't come apart and there won't be wood flying around the shop at 1100 rpm! I'll let you all know how it works out either when I'm done or when I get out of the ER. Either way, it'll be interesting.
For now, have a great day and remember, the faster it spins-the more damage it can do!

Hey people,
I forgot to mention in my last post that for the month of February I'll be donating 10% of sales to the Hands and Feet project for children in Haiti. This is a very good program that finds families for orphaned children in Haiti within their own country. Below is the link of you'd like to check them out.

http://www.handsandfeetproject.org/home.php

Thanks for your support for this great program!

Don't forget to wear your eye protection.

Post Grand Opening Report

Well, the grand opening was fun, we had 6 contenders for the riddle, one winner, and 136 original views to the Esty shop. No sales yet, but I am working on that.

Well, I went on a  "hunting" expedition a few days ago with my brother-in-law looking for some wood.We revved up the chain saw and set about getting some wood from the fallen and dead trees. Unfortunately, the land that we thought was open for collection of dead wood was actually private property. I guess the chain saw alerted the neighbor (of which there is only one for miles around and we just had to be within his hearing range) who promptly came down the mountain and let us know we couldn't take the manzanita from there. Looks like we need to find a different place to hunt for wood!  We did however get a couple of nice cedar logs and some pine that should make some good looking stuff.
Here are some pictures of bowls to be.
In the next day or so we'll have some new pieces up including an oak platter made from 21 pieces of oak.

Until next time, keep your tools sharp & your mouth shut. (any turners out there should know what I'm talking about)