Weekend Projiects

Made these two angel puzzles from a pattern by Dave and Judy Petersen. They specialize in puzzles and have published three pattern books. One which I have deals with animals. They have another called "Fantasy and Legends" which has unicorns, dragons, and the like and their most recent is Zodiac puzzles utilizing the signs of the zodiac for patterns. This pattern isn't in
any of them so I was glad to find it in the Holiday edition of "Scroll Saw Woodworking and Crafts" magazine.
The wood I used for these angels is a spalted maple. It has beautiful streaks in it and it is a soft maple so it cuts and shapes easily. I used a flap wheel sander in my drill press to round over the edges slightly which gives it a softer look and a little depth to the parts. A number five blade made the pieces slide together easily.
Hope to do more of these in the future cutting and shaping more of Judy and Dave's patterns.
I need practice using the flap wheel sander. One problem I have is not holding the pieces tight enough and the wheel propels them out of my hand and across my shop turning them into deadly missiles! Another is holding the pieces against the wheel too long causing burning or two much rounding. But, learning is what it is all about, right?
Have a good one. More to come soon.

Simple can be Good. Don't you think?

These simple little trucks were both made from a left over hunk of 2x4. The most expensive
thing on them are the wheels at about 25 cents each. They were cut from very simple patterns

designed by Steve Good in just a matter of minutes. Then, of course there is sanding and

finishing. I put a coat of spray lacquer on each one and the small car seen on the flatbed. Dries quickly and looks really good. I have been looking for more of these kinds of patterns and am finding many on the web that are quite reasonably priced. I put these on top of my workstation and it looks good for getting some orders for Christmas. Got a feeling that if I want to I can be very busy making things over the next month.

A Pleasant Visit With One of My Heroes

Had a pleasant conversation this afternoon with Sheila Landry of Sheila Landry Designs. Sheila is a pattern designer and long time scroll saw artist. For years I have enjoyed her patterns and cut many beautiful things from them. I have read her articles in magazines I subscribe to as well. So when I was having trouble placing an order on her new website I dropped her an email at the address on the site and she emailed me back asking for my phone number so she could call me. I readily agreed and sure enough she called me in just minutes!
Turned out the problem was a simple one. And it was all mine not hers. As soon as I corrected it, BAM...Bob's your uncle, there were my patterns in my email. After we straightened out the problem we talked a little about some of the patterns I had cut and some of the places her work is available. The whole point of this is...what I really love about this hobby/business is that the people we look on as the peak of success are REAL people. They take the time to talk with you,
answer your questions and give you helpful hints. As busy as they are, they are never too busy.
And you know what? They are all livin my dream, to make a business out of something you love to do and still be down to earth real people. Thanks again Sheila. I love the patterns. Now I have to get into the shop and start cuttin!

Happy Halloween!

Made these nifty Halloween ornaments this weekend. Instead of using hardwood I decided to use some scraps of quarter inch baltic birch I had and paint them black. Gives them a nice silhouette effect, don't you think? Patterns are by Steve Good.

Christmas seasons always begins early for me

Some Christmas ornaments I cut last night. The magazines that print scroll saw patterns for Christmas projects have been out for over a month now. Goal for me in the next week is to get into at least two bazaars in November and one in December. Gotta make a few calls and hope they are not all filled.

Last Game of the Season

Nothing to show you from the saw tonight so I thought I'd show you how beautiful Michigan is right now. The color is spectacular but sadly it will only last about another week. One of the great things I get to do besides scroll sawing is serve as the public address announcer at our local high school football games. Tomorrow night is the last game for us. The playoffs start next week but we didn't do so well so I have to say "PLAYOFFS! ARE YOU KIDD'N ME! PLAYOFFS? DON'T TALK ABOUT PLAYOFFS!" Just couldn't resist the old Jim Mora rant. Football fans know exactly what I'm talking about.
I did cut some ornaments tonight and they are drying on the finishing rack. I'll post them tomorrow if time allows.

This could be the big hit of the season!

How cute is this? Took this one to work today and showed to only 3 people and got orders for four right off the bat. And this one isn't even that good. I made it from walnut and used my favorite finish of choice Danish Oil. Where I went somewhat wrong though was trying to sand the edges with my flap sander chucked in the drill press. I had the speed to high and took off more material than I wanted to in some areas. But live and learn. I'll make new ones for the orders and they will look a lot better. I stack three of them at a time and will mix walnut, cherry and oak to offer customers a choice.

The pattern is by John Browner and can be found in Scroll Saw Woodworking and Crafts magazine, the Holiday Ornaments issue on page 32.

The little photo inserts are available from a number of suppliers of scroll saw accessories.

Have a good night. Might not get to post tomorrow. I'll be behind the mic again at a football game.

People Watching at the Craft Show

With sales so slow this weekend there wasn't much to do but people watch and so that is what I did and here are some of the things I saw.

Directly across from me old Hawk is sitting on one of the tables he's made holding a rubber band gun he obviously made from left over scraps. It shoots ping pong balls and every time a kid walks by he fires one into a car board box sitting there and it makes a loud pop. It gets the kid's
attention and he pulls Mom to a stop in front of old Hawk and he talks Mom into buying one for him and then she starts looking at his tables and buys one of those also. Clever marketing by old Hawk. Why do I call em old Hawk. He's 87 years old! God bless him. May we all live to be that age and still do the things we love.

Down the aisle a bit farther is a woman selling life like baby dolls. They really look like the real thing and they weigh about the same as a real baby. She's bouncing one on her knee and drawing a lot of attention. People are all holding them and cuddling them as if they were the real thing.

Here comes a cute couple down the aisle way. They look to be in their mid sixties and the man has a beard and a pony tail and she is wearing a denim skirt and has long brown hair. The kicker is: They are wearing matching tie dyed shirts! They look like a couple that met at Woodstock in 1969 and have been living happily together ever since in a VAN DOWN BY THE
RIVER!

Finally: I made some oven rack pulls from a Steve Good pattern with two notches in them, one for hooking on to the oven rack and pulling it out and the other for pushing it back in. I had to
explain to just about everybody under the age of 50 what it was and how you use it! And no you
can't use it in the microwave oven.

Back to the saw tomorrow. Stay Tuned!

Davison Day 2-Second Verse Worse Than the First.

I didn't think it was actually possible to do worse than yesterday and I haven't added up the numbers yet but I think it is very close. I know I did not recoup my space fee which, in my opinion, was way out of line. I'll not be doing another show with this promoter. The promise of over three thousand people visiting wasn't even realized in two days, let alone one. Other vendors I talked to were less than impressed as well. Those who were there for the most part experienced a big drop in sales from last year. To be fair I have heard it a lot..."people in Michigan just are not buying anything." It has often been said that when the U.S. economy catches a cold Michigan catches pneumonia. Well were on the respirator now and there will be a change in the governors office (Jenny is Term limited out) and there better be a big change in
policies too. But I digress.

I did manage to sell a few ornaments today and one of my higher priced crosses, but in the end this weekend was a big bust for me. Lots of other things I would have chosen to do If I knew it was going to be like this but that is the way the game is played. You just never know.

I'll be looking around here for some shows for next month and will likely pay a third or less of what I paid for this debacle and will do far better, I guarantee it.

One thing that was fun this weekend was people watching. Craft shows are great for that.
More on that tomorrow.

Davison Day 1

What a dud this turned out to be! It was supposed to be one of the biggest shows of the year. In the past "thousands" attended, or so I was told. This year there were lots of people but very few buyers. I didn't see many walking around carrying bags and I sold very little today. Looks like I may not make my space fee back unless I have a bigger day tomorrow. This is the second show in a row where I went with a big time craft promoter and paid a hefty fee and have been burned. Well that's it. It's back to playing "little ball". For the rest of the season I am staying close to home and I am going to try to get into the local church bazaars and not pay big time space rental fees. Judging by the other vendors I talked to today the promoters selling the spaces are the only ones making money.

Strike up the band!

I've had a lot of success over the years selling musical insturment ornaments at craft shows. Seems like everybody has a kid in the band and these make great stocking stuffers. I have more
than just these. I have drums, french horns, tubas and the like. What I don't have are flutes and clarinets and I really need them. I have never found or been able to design a suitable pattern for them. they have too many valves and buttons on them. It's hard to make a flute
that doesn't look like just a stick with holes in it and similar for the clarinet. I keep experementing with it though and one day I will come up with a beauty for both and I'll be able to retire or at the least, quit my day job.

You may have noticed a slight revision to the tower. I told my wife I thought I needed some kind of background on the tower to make the ornaments stand out more. She came up with this
red cloth and hemmed it at the top so it would wrap around and then drop down the inside. Then she put ties on the bottom to hold it straight. Really makes a difference! Great job honey!

See you at Davison this weekend. If you read Terry's Scroll Shoppe blog be sure to come up and say hi.

Cuttin' Corian

Corian is a trademark name for a certain counter top material that remodelers use. Scroll

Saw artists such as my self are not above begging them for their scrap pieces left over from recent jobs. It comes in a variety of colors and if you can get your hands on any it makes nice trivets and nick knacks.

Well I haven't located a source around here for it but I managed to pick up some pieces at this summers Scroll Saw Expo in Ohio. I finally got up the nerve to try cutting some of it. Pictured above is the result of my efforts.

Corian cuts something like wood but it has certain challenging characteristics. One is that you need to set your blade speed very low because if you don't the blade gets hot and the sawdust melts as you cut fusing the kerf right back together.

The size of the blade is important. For you scrollers reading this I tried a number five first but that didn't work out too well so I moved up to a 7. Much better. What ever blade you choose it needs to be able to clear the dust from the kerf otherwise it is very difficult to separate your finished piece from the stock. I ended up making a lot of release cuts.

As a final thought, I do like it and hope to cut some more soon. Results will be posted here. Meanwhile I need to find a good hearted remodeler who will let me have some scraps.

Ribbons drying on the Bench

Remember I told you I handed out a couple of these at the breast cancer awareness event last Saturday. Well sure enough the orders are starting to come in. I'm trying to figure out now what my costs are and then what percentage of the profits to donate to the American Cancer Society or the Susan G. Komin (sp?) for the Cure. So What do you think? Should I (a) donate ?all the funds to the Cancer Society ? after all it is a good cause. (b) donate half the proceeds?

after all, I deserve something for my time and effort. Or (c) keep it all because I'm a capitalist entrepaneur and after all "Greed is Good" (Gordon Gecko in Wall Street ). Humor aside my personal feeling is that this is the international symbol in the fight against breast cancer and it would be wrong for me to make a profit beyond my cost of materials and such. So a large portion of what ever I reap from this will go to cancer research.

Tower of Ornaments

Working on displays for Davison this week. This is a new idea I came up with for displaying my scroll sawn Christmas Ornaments. I have used small Christmas trees in the past but they do not allow enough room to display many and the ornaments are difficult to remove from the tree. As you can tell this is the old wire shelving you can get at any home center. I connected four of them with cable ties to form a square. I can display ornaments on all four sides if I want. The only thing I need is to figure out some kind of carousel arrangement so it can be rotated on the table. It is also pretty ugly right now. I need to dress it up somehow. Tomorrow will try to work on some shelves for my puzzles and word art.

These are not Weapons

Cut these letter openers out this weekend. I have several different patterns for them and I like them very much. The Challenge in these is in the sanding and shaping of them, not the cutting. So far I am not very good at it but they do work for opening mail and the more I do the better they will come out. The wood used for these is Bloodwood. It is very hard and very pricey but a friend of mine had some scraps left over from a project and graciously let me have them. It is a beautiful wood and the scraps were 1/8th and 1/4 inch thick Which is perfect for these. Hope to display and sell them at next weeks craft show.

Pink Day

It is a beautiful Mid-Michigan morning. Sunshine, temperature low 60's, crisp fall breeze. We

decided to join the 3.5 mile walk for breast cancer awareness today. Thousands turned out for this event today as the walk began in a local park and traverse a couple of country roads in a circle pattern. I had stack cut a half a dozen of he pink ribbons shown here from 1/8 inch Baltic birch plywood. Attached fishing line for a lanyard. Kept two for the wife and I and passed the

rest out to friends. One is a captain of a relay for life team and wants 50 of them painted purple for their event next summer. I'm considering making a lot of these and donating proceeds to the American Cancer Society.

Nothing much is going to get done on the saw today. Michigan Sate Football this afternoon. Saginaw Spirit Hockey tonight. I am the Spirit's pa announcer and tonight is Pink Out for breast cancer awareness. So the pink theme continues.

The Blog is Back

Well I've done it again, started a blog and then neglected it for months! Kick me in the butt.
It seems I got a little discouraged after Clarkston and just quit. I quit blogging but not sawing.
I also went to school a little bit. I have been studying a couple of successfull craft bloggers and
entrepenuers to see what they do to make their business work. One thing they do is post almost
daily updating what they are doing in the shop and how their business is running. I have also been doing a lot of on line reading about how to market and sell crafts on line. The one thing they stress is that a website and a blog are a must. Well, I don't have the website yet but I do have the blog and one thing neccessary to make it work are lots of posts and updates. So get ready 'cause it's comin at you. I'm getting back on the horse. This weekend I am doing the Davison High School Fall Spectacular craftshow. Lots to do to get ready for it and I plan to chronicle it here in words and pictures. Terry's Scrollshoppe blog is back.