Valley Lutheran Craft Show Comments and Results

First Christmas Bazaar I've done this season.  Trying to concentrate on getting online sales going but need these shows occasionally for exposure.  This was a great show for me last year out earning any show I've done.  This year sales were down  but still made significantly more than the booth fee.  I don't know if sales were down because of the economy as everyone says or if last year was just exceptional.  I was a little disappointed but overall I deemed it a success and will likely do it again next year.  It is very close to home so can't beat it for convenience.  Table location wasn't the greatest but folks did find us ok and a great side benefit was that I made some good contacts that likely will be ordering more stuff.

Haven't been updating the blog and website lately because most of my days have been taken up with cutting projects in the wood shop.  That has been a serious handicap for me because the blog and web site need to be kept up so you will keep coming back to see what is new.  I've been using facebook a lot to post pictures of new things and direct you to the blog and website.  But there hasn't been a lot of new things lately. 

Got another show coming up in two weeks (Nov 17th) at Frankenmuth High School.  This was a great show last year as well and I have high hopes for success there.  If your in the area stop by and say hello. 

I'll be doing lots of cutting in the next couple of weeks and hope to get the website updated and a couple more blog posts in the meantime.  If you're on facebook send me a friend request.  I'll be happy to add you if you are not already on my list.

 

Newest Crosses

Love these to crosses.  I found the patterns on one of the on line forums I visited and contacted the designer.  Good ole Texas boy named Bobby Riggs.  He sent me both through email for a nominal price and I went right to work on them.  He also kindly gave me permission to sell them in Terry's Scroll Shoppe.
They both measure 6x8 inches.  The one on the right is very delicate.  I cut a smaller version of it and made the mistake of picking it up near the bottom and the swirls broke right off.  So I made the second version a little bigger and cut the swirls a little bit thicker but it is still extremely fragile.  Need to wrap it very special so who ever buys it at a bazaar will be able to get it home in one piece.
The one on the right is much stronger, as you can see, but still has a nice delicate look to it.  Used cherry wood for these and finished with boiled linseed oil and finished off with a coat of polyurethane.
Hope to launch online selling from my website terrysscrollshoppe.com soon. Working out details for
ordering and shipping now.  Goal is to have it done by early October.
Keep checking in.  More coming soon.

This years new ornaments

It's been a while since I've done some good ole fretwork and filagree so I cut these ornaments for my fall bazaars.  They will sell in the 7 to 10 dollar range.  These were desinged by Keith Fenton of Nova Scotia. 
Just finished some great looking crosses and am looking forward to showing them to you in the next post.
Keeping pretty busy in this retirement life.  Cutting scroll work, announcing football and hockey games. Sure is great to have the time to do the things I love.  Still need to find more time for blogging and website building though.

How Should I finish this?

Well it's Monday, but being retired it doesn't have nearly the same annoyance for me that it used to have.  Spent the weekend cutting some new projects and never really even left the house.  Today am adding some new photos to facebook and taking pictures of some recently finished projects.  I have a lot of things I am dying to show you but haven't found time lately to sit down and write.  Still working on the products page on the website. It is kind of tough to decide what to include and how to arrange it.  I have also decided to incorporate pay pal for orders.  I really don't want to take credit cards as the companies keep adding on new fees every time the government puts a new regulation on them.  It makes the politicians look good but we all get it in the end anyway. 

As for the piece in the picture above:  This is another Sue Mey pattern in a set of six that I am working on. They are all word art with a Christmas theme that uses one letter to create a scene.  It's an interesting concept and I like it very much.  The quandary I am having is how to finish them.  I am cutting them out of plain old pine and just leaving them unfinished so far.  Stain might be an option but choosing the shade has me conflicted and getting into the openings is a challenge.  Spray paint might be another option.  I did that with the "Snow" man one and then top it off with glitter blast and
it came out great, but would that work for a Christmas decoration.   I welcome any suggestions you might have and it would help me decide.

Got some new ornaments I've been working on that I can't wait to show you and couple of beautiful
cross patterns I just got from a fellow in Texas.  Those will be coming in the next couple of posts.
Keep checking in.  As for retirement...I highly recommend it!

More Christmas Projects

Here are a couple of Christmas projects I cut last week.  They are from a set of six patterns designed by Sue Mey.  Will be cutting more soon.  These stand about ten inches high and twelve inches long.
Planning to sell for $15.00 each. Will be posting more pictures soon as fall bazaars are coming up soon.

Free to Saw At Last!

Well the day job is finally history!  I retired last week and now I am ready to get back into the scroll
saw business.  Actually I've been doing quite a bit of cutting since my last post but have not kept up with the blog and the website.   The above pictures are some examples of what I've been doing. 
I got interested in making wooden boxes a while back and found severeal good patterns.  Have some wood I bought specifically for that purpose.  Two of the three boxes above are from patterns designed by Steve good and the five corner box with the pretty fretwork design is from Sheila Landry. 
The fretwork buttterflies are ornament size and I made several of those.  They are from a pattern by Keith Fenton.  I konw the designers are probably not of interest to a lot of you but they are important to other scrollers and since I use patterns created by other people I do fell an obligation to credit them;
Been cutting a lot of very fancy Christmas ornamets that I will be posting here for you to view soo,
Also working on getting the website set up to sell product.  I'm not a web designer so it's a long and tedious process for me.  I'm using Go Daddy and their Website Tonight page designer.  I spend a lot of time on the phone with support.  They are very helpful.
Working on stuff for November Craft shows right now.  Will be posting more pictures soon.

Wedding Cross

Made this one for a friend at the day job.  She has a family wedding coming up in May and wanted this as a gift for the happy couple.  About 31/2 hours in this one.  It measures 10 x 14.  Good size to hang on a wall. 
The pattern for this cross is from Sue May of Pretoria, South Africa.  Her website scrollsawartist.com is a treasure trove of terrific patterns.  She has many cross patterns such as this one covering all kinds of events and professions.  Another one I have found to be very popular and a good seller at craft shows is the Nativity Cross depicting the birth of Jesus.
The really nice thing about Sue's patterns is that you don't have to wait for them to arrive in the mail you can down load them right from her site.
Thanks for checking in.  Come back often.