Archive for December 2016
The Board Chronicles is an ongoing series of articles about the adventures of Mrs M’s Handmade as a vendor at community festivals & craft fairs. Mrs M’s subsidiary, Mr M’s Woodshop, has been approved to create this chronicle for the good of vendorkind.
Valencia High School is about 3 miles from our house. Our kids didn’t go there, but it’s in our neighborhood.
The choir stages a holiday boutique as a fund raiser … and the choir director’s parents were both involved with teaching The Engineer in his formative years.
It’s local. It’s good people. You bet we’re doing it.
Here’s what happened last year: 2015’s VHS Holiday Boutique.
New Ideas
- We haven’t done a table top event since April, and we haven’t done a split event since last year. On Saturday, I covered day 2 of this event while Mrs M covered day 1 of the Summit Holiday Boutique. We like both *local* events enough that we double booked ourselves for our last events of the year.
- Haven’t used this table top, stair step display since we brought out Mrs M’s purpose-built display early this year. It’s been months since we used it; that qualifies as a new idea, right?
Observations
- Event # 10 of 11 events we’re doing in the 4th quarter this year.
- I love local.
- Since we were doing a split event on table tops, neither event got full inventory. This event didn’t get MBOs, large cutting boards or Lazy Susans. I only got one request at this event … for a Lazy Susan. Sorry!
- Every holiday boutique should have a choir perform. Valencia High’s choir is available for bookings, I am told.
- Since I was solo at this event, that means I did the lotion bar demo many times this weekend. Benefit: my hands are now soft and plyable.
- When you’re used to doing 100+ transactions at a 2 day event, it really feels wrong to only do 38 transactions at this event. I know it was slow, but, geez.
- Sales were down from last year … but we really don’t do this event just to make money. We’re waving the flag, building brand awareness, and supporting a local high school’s music program. 100% of vendor fees go to support the choir program. What’s not to like?
- What’s it like doing a local event?
- 4:00pm – event ends. Packing.
- 4:16pm – choir carries *everything* to the Jeep
- 4:27pm – loaded and going home
- 4:34pm – home
- 4:35pm – stow boards, lotions, soaps & display pieces in the trailer (storage), garage (long term storage), dining room (for Mrs M to sort) and Jeep (one container, going to tomorrow’s event)
- 4:53pm – bourbon in hand, writing this blog
- I love local.
The Food
Friday Breakfast: Bad bagels & cream cheese. Even bad bagels aren’t that bad.
Friday Lunch: A ham sandwich & chips, at home. Of course.
Saturday Breakfast: A ham & cheese omelette @ Jimmy Dean’s.
Saturday Lunch: A protein bar & trail mix. Vendor lunch of champions.
Saturday Snack: Nope.
Saturday Dinner: Blackened Ribeye at Marston’s. Yum.
The Facts
- Total miles driven: 13
- Booth cost: $180
- # of people we met during the event from the producer: Just the choir director & teacher … but every single choir student came by the booth!
- Visits in our booth by a promoter’s representative: many
- Total sales: $778
- # boards available: about half of the inventory … no big cutting boards, MBOs, or Lazy Susans (sigh)
- Saturday alarm: 5:35am
- Sunday alarm: nope
- # transactions: 38
- # soap & lotion vendors: there were a couple of anti-aging vendors selling an array of, uh, stuff. And another vendor was selling essential oils.
- # woodworking vendors: just me
- Edge grain vs. end grain: 5:0
- Returning next year? Maybe. If it fits in the schedule!
Boards sold: 5
Pig: 1
Cheese Board: 1
Notepad Clipboard: 1
Small Surfboard: 1
Custom Order: 1
Pig 16 – 10. Hard Maple, Black Walnut, Jatoba & Yellowheart.. 12″ x 19″ x 1-1/8″.
Clipboard 16 – 023. Black Walnut, Hard Maple, Bubinga & Canarywood. Note pad size. 1/2″ clip.
Small Surfboard 16 – 06. Hard Maple & Purpleheart.
Cheese Board 16 – 067. Black Walnut, Purpleheart & Hard Maple. 8″ x 11″ x 3/4″.
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I first heard it this summer. A lady walked into the booth, and said, “I’ve found my cutting board guy.”
I’m that guy. The Cutting Board Guy.
It really hit me, though, at our biggest event of the year. There were 3 other woodworkers there, all selling cutting boards. However, I didn’t like those boards … they used the wrong finish (and didn’t know why), or the wrong woods (and didn’t even know it), or the wrong design (ergonomics are important!).
I’m not a snob about it, truly. It’s a big world out there and different people like different things. That’s fine. However, I have absolutely done my research into “best practices.” I’ve researched the science of cutting boards & food prep. I’ve even talked to people (!). Finally, I have made a few hundred cutting boards.
Easy to casually throw that one out there, isn’t it? A few hundred!
The bottom line, though, is that I have struggled mightily over the last few years to make heirloom quality cutting boards. I’m now making those boards with an unusually wide array of hardwoods … and still making them in the way most recommended by experts.
So, I’m that guy.
All of that stated, here are some of my absolute favorites from 2016.
Cutting Board 16 – End 040. Bubinga, Cherry, Bloodwood, Goncalo Alves, Canarywood, Padauk, Purpleheart, Yellowheart & Hard Maple. 16″ x 21″ x 1-1/2″.
Cutting Board 16 – Edge 020. Black Walnut, Cherry, Hard Maple, Canarywood & Jatoba. Bread Board Ends, Edge Grain. 12″ x 16″ x 3/4″.
Cutting Board 16 – End 044. Black Walnut, Bloodwood & Hickory. End Grain. 16″ x 21″ x 1-1/2″. Commissioned Piece.
Cutting Board 16 – Edge 005. Bread Board Ends; in-counter replacement. Commissioned Piece. Black Walnut, Jatoba, Hard Maple, Yellowheart, Caribbean Rosewood, Canarywood & Teak. 16″ x 20″ x 3/4″.
Cutting Board 16 – End 018. Purpleheart, Hard Maple & Jatoba. End grain. 14″ x 21″ x 1-1/2″.
Cutting Board 16 – Edge 028. Bubinga, Hard Maple, Purpleheart, Jatoba & Bloodwood. Edge Grain. 13″ x 16″ x 1-1/4″.
Cutting Board 16 – End 009. Cherry, Hard Maple, Padauk, Purpleheart & Honey Locust. End grain. 12″ x 16″ x 1-1/4″.
Cutting Board 16 – End 038. Black Walnut, Yellowheart & Hickory. End Grain, Large Custom Juice Groove. 20″ x 26″ x 1-1/2″. Commissioned Piece.
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Mule Deer in Wyoming’s Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge. Photo by Tom Koerner/USFWS. Photo taken on 11/26/16 and posted on Flickr by the US Department of the Interior.
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New York’s Jamaica Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Photo by Micael Fano. Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 12/7/16.
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A Prairie Falcon puffs up against the cold on a chilly morning at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge. Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 12/5/16.
Some winter commutes are wet. And cold. This mule deer is headed for a drier destination! Posted on Facebook by the US Department of the Interior, 11/22/16.
This mountain bluebird rides the storm out. Stay warm friends! Photo: Tom Koerner/USFWS. Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 11/25/16.
Sunset glows purple over snow at Crater Lake National Park. Photo by John Dale. Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 12/4/16.
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The Board Chronicles is an ongoing series of articles about the adventures of Mrs M’s Handmade as a vendor at community festivals & craft fairs. Mrs M’s subsidiary, Mr M’s Woodshop, has been approved to create this chronicle for the good of vendorkind.
For the last 2 years, Santa’s Art Shop has been our biggest event of the year. Could we repeat that performance in 2016?
Ridgecrest, CA is the home of Santa’s Art Shop. Ridgecrest is just down the road from Inyokern, and that town announces on the sign at the edge of town that they are “100 miles from everywhere.” Ridgecrest is near the Naval Air Weapons Station (NAWS) China Lake in the western Mojave Desert. There aren’t a lot of people near there outside of the military facility … which is a largely undeveloped 1.1 million acres, making it larger than the state of Rhode Island.
Lots of open spaces here.
The people may be few, but those people need to do Christmas shopping. Santa’s Art Shop sets up on the Desert Empire Fairgrounds, and thousands from the region show up, every year.
New Ideas
- After 2 years in the Joshua Hall, we were moved to the Mesquite Hall. Joshua was unavailable this year … resulting in a cascade of booth movement throughout the event. Practically everyone was in a new space. There were more vendors outside this year, and fewer vendors over all.
- Little Girl joined us, so we had 3 Mowrys go a-vending. We used to have 3 people at every show in our ignorant, early days … now, it’s a special occasion!
Observations
- Event # 9 of the 11 events we’re doing in the 4th quarter. The end is oh so solidly in sight.
- Expectations. We had them. And expectations can kill you.
- We arrived Friday afternoon for the big set up. We do Christmas decorations for this event, and take our time getting the display just right. This is an important event: our best event for each of the last 2 years. It demands our best effort.
- Broke a piece on one canopy that resulted in one leg not locking into place when extended. Only one fix would work: duct tape. Of course.
- A guy IM’d me through Facebook before the event, and wanted to make sure I was bringing (wait for it) … chess boards. He could not wait to see me this year! It’s not unusual for customers to make soft appointments to see me at an event, but this is the first time that’s happened for my # 1 most requested item.
- We woke Saturday morning to get ready for our big event, and Little Girl was sick. Food poisoning? She was a gamer, and tried … but she couldn’t. Back to the hotel for her, and she had to wait until the event was over for us to bring her ginger ale and Saltines.
- Meanwhile, back at the Art Shop, we got ‘whelmed pretty quickly. You couldn’t walk through the aisles Saturday morning. It was busy, busy … and stayed that way until about 2pm. Even as it slowed down, there were still shoppers doing what they do. Great day … but not our best. Lotion & soap sales weren’t as good as at the record-setting California Strawberry Festival. For me, the day was not as good as last year; I was a bit under prior year. That’s how we ended day 1: down to prior year by $60. (sigh)
- Down is never good.
- We ended Saturday disappointed, of course. Down is down. We were so looking forward to this event, and we were very slightly down – from 2015’s best event. It’s amazing how expectations can drive you to distraction when you are having one of your best events ever, but it feels like you aren’t achieving your goals.
- With Sunday’s dawning, Little Girl was back. She had beaten the 24 hour bug. Come to find out, many of her friends she’d just gone camping with were also suffering from that same awful bug.
- Sunday was a slow day, as is normal. Sundays typically have late crowds, and there’s a lot more strolling and chatting than you have on a Saturday that’s chock full of ASB (Aggressive Shopping Behavior).
- But the shoppers did keep coming.
- The event is in a metal building, and the cell service is horrible. The only way to do credit card transactions was to go outside. Every time. This was so annoying. Luckily, however, we were right by the door. Run the card. Through the door, 10 steps, and then back to get a signature. Through the door, 10 steps, and the transaction went through. Usually. Such a pain!
- We expect (that word!) Sundays to be 40% of Saturday, which is exactly how this event played out last year. That would have been great, had it played out that way this year. We’d have been down, of course, but only by a very small percentage.
- ’twas not to be.
- Expectations can kill you.
- After 2 years at this event, I definitely have customers coming back to tell me about the board they bought & use, or perhaps gave to someone a year or 2 ago, and how much they love it. It’s really wonderful when people tell me stories. I like stories.
- For an engaged shopping crowd, we had a surprisingly small number of conversations about alternatives. People came in, saw what you had, and shopped accordingly. They didn’t stay to discuss it: they had a mission to accomplish. This is a Christmas season event, and it’s all about the shopping. I did discuss special orders to replace in-counter boards (which can only be made AFTER CHRISTMAS), but other than that, there were few meaningful conversations about what I didn’t have on display.
- I only got one other request at this event: display stands for my cutting boards. It’s not the first time someone has asked to buy one of my stands at an event … as Mrs M reminded me. Hmmmmm.
- Remember The Mistake? I had that end grain cutting board as overstock throughout this event. Never brought it out to display. Showed it to one lady … sold it. Perhaps I need to make more mistakes? No, actually the lesson here is that I need to make more end grain cutting boards using Hickory. Now, that is a plan.
- Had a couple of women in the booth, buying a board for the man of the home. They described him as a destructive force in the kitchen that destroys cutting boards. What did they buy? The unique, pretty board that I had hoped might end up as a serving piece – or even, shockingly for me, as a display piece due to its one-of-a-kind beauty. I sold it with a smile on my face and a cringe in my heart.
- I need to make more pretty things that I don’t sell.
- A vendor ran into the booth, said, “I have to buy a cutting board on the sly!” and ran out. I looked at the ladies in the booth: “What was that?” Eventually, the vendor came back; she was buying an anniversary gift for her husband, and didn’t want him to see it while he was sitting at their booth just down from ours. She sent her proxy to buy the board, and all ended well. Husband even smiled when he opened the board!
- We passed last year’s Sunday sales at 2pm, with 2 hours still to go. That’s great, but the pace was slow. The event seemed to (sadly) be winding down.
- Sold my last chess board. I finished 6 back in June, so now I see that I’m selling about one every month. I am now out of the chess board business … until next year.
- Still in the pig business (sigh).
- We have a standing rule: we never, ever, take down our display before closing time. That’s a published rule for almost every event, of course, and we always follow the rules (!). Vendors around us often start moving boxes and breaking down displays 15 or even 30 minutes before closing time, but we don’t. We won’t. Experience has shown that my heavy cutting boards – my expensive cutting boards – are purchases that people often make last minute, after they’ve thought about the purchase and decided they really want to do it. We never close early.
- Never.
- I sold 2 large, end grain cutting boards in the final hour of the event. My sales in the final hour were over 10% of our total sales for the weekend. And that, my friends, was a very good thing. I brought 211 boards to this event, but I only took home 168. I sold 20% of my inventory in one weekend.
Best. Mr. M’s. Event. Ever.
- The load-out was bigger than normal, since we had Christmas decorations to take down as well as a lot of vendors to dodge that were loading out through the narrow door directly adjacent to my display. We had 3 people attacking the problem, however, and we were loaded & ready to move the trailer down the road after only an hour and 39 minutes. We were home shortly after 8pm, and then turned immediately to go out to dinner.
- The next step, of course, was to begin analyzing the event and actually counting the money. And it was wrong.
- I keep a tally of the event, as you know, and the tally is sometimes off a bit. When we get ‘whelmed, I don’t always get to write down transactions. Sometimes, we just miss things. Humans. Mistakes. It happens. But our tally was not equaling our cash count. We were off. We weren’t short, luckily. We were long. Way long.
- Long is good. Way long is very good.
Best. Weekend. Ever.
Best. Event. Ever.
- Now, a new problem. How are we going to top this? Luckily, that’s a problem for next year!
The Food
Saturday Breakfast: Scrambled eggs & toast at Best Western.
Saturday Lunch: A Polish Dog. With ketchup & mustard.
Saturday Snack: nope.
Saturday Dinner: A delightful dinner at Charlie’s with our friends & fellow vendors that run Souper Dip.
Sunday Breakfast: Scrambled eggs … and biscuits & gravy at Best Western.
Sunday Lunch: Chicken fingers & fries. The food is not great at Santa’s Art Shop.
Sunday Snack: Cinnamon & sugar coated almonds & pecans. Yum.
Sunday Dinner: Chicken Marsala at Santa Clarita’s best Italian restaurant: Bella Cucina.
The Facts
- Total miles driven: 279
- Booth cost: $407
- # of people we met during the event from the producer: 4
- Visits in our booth by a promoter’s representative: several
- Total sales: $4,833
- # boards available: all of them = 211
- Saturday alarm: 5:50am
- Sunday alarm: 5:50am
- # transactions: 130
- # soap & lotion vendors: there was another on our aisle, and a lotion guy (?) that was asking ladies as they passed, “Can I do your hands?” Mrs M politely declined that opportunity when asked.
- # woodworking vendors: 3 other vendors had cutting boards! One was really a furniture maker with a few cutting boards on display. Another was really a turner with a few cheese slicing boards on display. Finally, there was a coop venture between 3 woodworkers that had a very large, impressive double booth display. They had many cutting boards … but no end grain. And very few boards of size except for a curious design with a bread hook, a juice groove, and a back rail. Now, that was an unwieldy board! In my humble opinion. It even confused Mrs M, so I know it was an odd design.
- Edge grain vs. end grain: 40:4
- Returning next year? With bells on, if I can figure out how to wear them.
Boards sold: 44
Magic Bottle Openers: 10
Cheese Boards: 10
Small Boards: 4
Large Cutting Boards: 3
Hearts: 3
Chess Boards: 2
Cutting Boards: 2
Pigs: 2
Small Sous Chef Boards: 2
Large Surfboards: 2
Custom Order: 1
Small Surfboard: 1
Large Sous Chef Boards: 1
Lazy Susan: 1
Cheese Board 16 – 059. Purpleheart, Caribbean Rosewood, Black Walnut, & Jatoba. 12″ x 12″ x 3/4″.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 151. Birdseye Maple, Jatoba, Mahogany & Padauk. Double Magic.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 201. Purpleheart, Cherry, Mahogany & Hard Maple. Double Magic.
Lazy Susan 16 – 023. Jatoba, Mahogany & Cherry. 17″ diameter.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 198. Cherry, Purpleheart, Hard Maple & Bloodwood. Double Magic.
Small Sous Chef 16 – 022. Hard Maple, Goncalo Alves & Quilted Yellowheart. 9″ x 16″ x 3/4″.
Small Sous Chef 16 – 027. Hard Maple, Cherry & Jatoba. 9″ x 16″ x 3/4″. Already sold.
Cheese Board 16 – 057. Black Walnut, Cherry & Hard Maple. 8″ x 8″ x 3/4″.
Cheese Board 16 – 058. Padauk & Hard Maple. 9″ x 12″ x 7/8″.
Sous Chef 16 – 016. Purpleheart, Goncalo Alves & Padauk. 11″ x 22″ x 3/4″.
Small Board 16 – 033. Bubinga, Hard Maple, Purpleheart, Jatoba & Bloodwood. Edge Grain. 7″ x 13″ x 1-1/4″.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 163. Padauk, Purpleheart, Bloodwood & Yellowheart. Double Magic.
Small Board 16 – 022. Hard Maple, Jatoba & Bubinga. 10″ x 10″ x 7/8″.
Cheese & Cracker Server 16 – 11. Cherry, Hard Maple & Black Walnut.. 12″ x 19″ x 1-1/4″.
Cheese & Cracker Server 16 – 01. Hard Maple, Cherry & Black Walnut. 12″ x 19″ x 1-1/4″.
Cutting Board 16 – Edge 020. Black Walnut, Cherry, Hard Maple, Canarywood & Jatoba. Bread Board Ends, Edge Grain. 12″ x 16″ x 3/4″.
Cheese Board 16 – 050. Hard Maple, Black Walnut, Bloodwood & Jatoba. 8″ x 11″ x 3/4″.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 153. Cherry, Purpleheart, Hard Maple & Buginga. Single Magic.
Small Board 16 – 030. Black Walnut, Hard Maple & Jatoba. 8″ x 12″ x 1-1/8″.
Pig 16 – 06. Hard Maple, Hickory, Black Walnut, Yellowheart, Canarywood & Cherry. 12″ x 19″ x 7/8″.
Cheese Board 16 – 065. Black Walnut, Padauk & Birdseye Maple. 8″ x 11″ x 3/4″.
Heart 16 – 01. Purpleheart, Hard Maple, Bubinga, Cherry & Bloodwood. 11″ x 12″ x 3/4″.
Magic Bottle Opener 190. Red Oak, Cherry, Teak & Yellowheart. Single Magic.
Heart 16 – 02. Purpleheart, Hard Maple, Bubinga, Cherry & Bloodwood. 11″ x 12″ x 3/4″.
Magic Bottle Opener 176. Purpleheart, Mahogany, Cherry & Hard Maple. Single Magic.
Cutting Board 16 – End 050. Purpleheart, Hard Maple & Jatoba. End Grain. 15″ x 21″ x 1-1/2″. Sold at its first showing.
Chess 16 – 03. Black Walnut & Hard Maple playing surface framed in Purpleheart. Squares are 2-1/8″ across.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 097. Black Walnut, Yellowheart, Padauk & Hard Maple. Double Magic = Refrigerator or Wall Mount.
Small Surfboard 16 – 19. Jatoba & Birdseye Maple. 7″ x 16″ x 3/4″.
Cheese Board 16 – 04. Birdseye Maple & Purpleheart. 8″ x 11″ x 3/4″.
Pig 16 – 05. Hard Maple, Canarywood, Black Walnut & Purpleheart. 12″ x 19″ x 1-1/8″.
Heart 16 – 05. Hard Maple, Bloodwood & Purpleheart. 11″ x 12″ x 3/4.
Cheese Board 16 – 052. Hard Maple, Cherry & Padauk.8″ x 11″ x 3/4″.
Cheese Board 16 – 053. Canarywood, Padauk & Birdseye Maple. 8″ x 11″ x 3/4″.
Cheese Board 16 – 062. Black Walnut, Hard Maple, Yellowheart, Cherry & Padauk. 8″ x 11″ x 3/4″.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 131. Bubinga, Bloodwood & Cherry. Single Magic.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 089. Black Walnut, Bubinga & Yellowheart. Wall mount.
Cheese Board 16 – 055. Padauk & Hard Maple. 7″ x 11″ x 7/8″.
Cutting Board 16 – End 047. Black Walnut, Bloodwood & Hickory. End Grain. 15″ x 18″ x 1-1/2″.
Chess 16 – 02. Birdseye Maple & Walnut playing surface framed in Padauk. Squares are 2-1/8″ across.
Cutting Board 16 – End 049. Hard Maple & Jatoba. End Grain. 16″ x 21-1/2″ x 1-1/2″. Sold at its first showing.
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As we reach the end of the year, I’ve been spending a lot of time in the garage woodshop to get enough boards ready to fill out the inventory for the holiday season.
Here, for your consideration:
- 2 different 14″ x 18″ edge grain boards … simple, relatively light boards that are big enough to do just about anything.
- 3 different large end grain cutting boards, which are actually my favorite boards to make. These are generational boards: with proper care, they will last for decades. My job is to make sure that they’ll look good doing it, too!
I’ve used a lot of Hard Maple in these boards. I had made several darker boards without Hard Maple over the last few months, and I felt the itch to return to the classic. Hard Maple end grain boards are the traditional butcher blocks, and they’ve been in use for centuries. The FDA and almost all state laws actually state that commercial wooden cutting boards should be Hard Maple “or its equivalent,” and I deal a lot in the equivalents.
Today, though, I celebrate the original … with some nice colorful & decorative touches added in from Africa (Purpleheart & Padauk) and Central & South America (Bloodwood, Jatoba & Canarywood) .
Cutting Board 16 – End 048. Purpleheart, Hard Maple & Canarywood. End Grain. 14″ x 18″ x 1-1/2″.
Cutting Board 16 – Edge 030. Hard Maple, Bloodwood, Purpleheart & Bubinga. Edge Grain. 14″ x 18″ x 1-1/4″.
Cutting Board 16 – End 049. Hard Maple & Jatoba. End Grain. 16″ x 21-1/2″ x 1-1/2″. Sold at its first showing.
Cutting Board 16 – Edge 031. Hard Maple, Cherry, Jatoba & Padauk. Edge Grain.
Cutting Board 16 – End 050. Purpleheart, Hard Maple & Jatoba. End Grain. 15″ x 21″ x 1-1/2″. Sold at its first showing.
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When I am given a custom order for a new board, I design it first.
It’s good to have a plan.
The plan is hatched on the computer, using an excellent program made … to make cutting boards. That’s the path I followed in November for a board that was recently completed and delivered before Thanksgiving:
Cutting Board 16 – End 044. Black Walnut, Bloodwood & Hickory. End Grain. 16″ x 21″ x 1-1/2″. Commissioned Piece.
However, this post is not about that board. It’s about the mistake I made first.
I was under the gun, you see, and had no time to waste in completing this special order. I designed & got approval to make the board, I “picked and processed” the wood, meaning I got the wood cut to size, ready to glue, and then I glued up the board.
And it was wrong.
When I discovered my error, I saw that the board didn’t follow the approved design precisely. I had reversed the order of two boards (the adjacent Hickory & Bloodwood boards). The board had become too symmetrical, with a rectangular strip of hickory down the middle, flanked by rectangular strips of Black Walnut & Bloodwood. There was no offset between those rectangles, meaning that there were “4-way” corners on every strip of wood.
Not good.
Oh, the board would be OK, but it would definitely not be as strong as an end grain board is when the corners are “2-way,” with the joints getting the added support of solid wood on one side, as 2 pieces are joined on the other. Stronger = Better. I’m all about that. And this doesn’t even consider how the board no longer followed the approved design.
So, nothing to do but start the commissioned piece over, get it right, and put this mistake aside to be completed another day.
Today.
I offset the wood to eliminate the hard rectangle of Hickory; now the Bloodwood repeatedly extends into that expanse of American hardwood. The result is a stronger – though somewhat smaller – board. In my eye, the board is more attractive this way as well. I ended up having to cut off some of the Black Walnut on the edge of the board (the same amount was cut off as the amount of Bloodwood providing the new offset). That’s a lesson I’ve learned: when I make a mistake, the board gets smaller. Always.
But, small & strong will win the day over bigger & weaker … & uglier.
Cutting Board 16 – End 047. Black Walnut, Bloodwood & Hickory. End Grain. 15″ x 18″ x 1-1/2″.
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I make boards to be of use. I’m not trying to make wall art: I’m trying to make cutting boards. Good cutting boards.
However, I can’t make people cut on these boards, even though that sounds like a pretty good idea to me. If they want them to display, then that’s what they will do. With my blessing, and my frustrations.
These mobile boards (I call them Small Sous Chef Boards) have a short handle and a work surface that’s about 9″ x 12″. The boards are 3/4″ thick, and intended for 2-sided use.
I’ve been struggling to keep these in stock all year, so I made 6 for December events … and I sold 3 before they even got price tags.
In November.
It’s a good problem, I know. I am really not complaining! But it’s now my plan to make a baker’s dozen of these with all new designs in the first quarter of next year. Wonder how many will make it to our first 2017 event?
Small Sous Chef 16 – 022. Hard Maple, Goncalo Alves & Quilted Yellowheart. 9″ x 16″ x 3/4″.
Small Sous Chef 16 – 027. Hard Maple, Cherry & Jatoba. 9″ x 16″ x 3/4″. Already sold.
Small Sous Chef 16 – 023. Birdseye Maple, Bloodwood & Cherry. 9″ x 16″ x 3/4″. Already sold.
Small Sous Chef 16 – 026. Black Walnut, Hard Maple, Jatoba & Yellowheart. 9″ x 16″ x 3/4″. Already sold.
Small Sous Chef 16 – 024. Quilted Yellowheart & Canarywood. 9″ x 16″ x 3/4″.
Small Sous Chef 16 – 025. Bloodwood & Hard Maple. 9″ x 16″ x 3/4″.
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My “to do” list has had making hearts on it for a long time.
I finally made myself make time to do it.
These hearts are 11″ high, and about 12″ wide. They’re 3/4″ thick, and are intended for 2-sided use (so no non-skid rubber feet).
Each of these are different, of course … because no heart is the same. They do all have Bloodwood in them … because they’re hearts. I mean, what wood would you choose to put into a heart?
I also know I’ll never make a heart out of pure Black Walnut, because a heart should not be black.
I can’t wait for someone to ask me how much my heart costs.
Or if I have a bigger heart.
I believe these will be fun!
Heart 16 – 01. Purpleheart, Hard Maple, Bubinga, Cherry & Bloodwood. 11″ x 12″ x 3/4″.
Heart 16 – 03. Hard Maple, Bloodwood & Purpleheart. 11″ x 12″ x 3/4.
Heart 16 – 04. Hard Maple, Purpleheart, Jatoba & Bloodwood. 11″ x 12″ x 3/4″.
Heart 16 – 05. Hard Maple, Bloodwood & Purpleheart. 11″ x 12″ x 3/4.
Heart 16 – 06. Hard Maple, Purpleheart, Jatoba & Bloodwood. 11″ x 12″ x 3/4″.
Heart 16 – 02. Purpleheart, Hard Maple, Bubinga, Cherry & Bloodwood. 11″ x 12″ x 3/4″.
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Valencia High School is about 3 miles from our house. Our kids didn’t go there, but it’s in our neighborhood.
