Happiness

Chippygeoff · 10 Jun 2015

I mentioned the other day how disappointed I was with last Saturdays craft fair at a huge event that attracted thousands. On Tuesday I attened my normal craft fair and ended the day with £426. The day went really well and was one of the most interesting as well in more ways than one. Soon after lunch I was approached by a lady who owned a caravan park and she wanted two key fobs made for each caravan so the customer had one and one was kept in the office. I showed her a few different designs i had with me and she chose one and wanted a total of 52 key fobs.

Earlier in the week I made some new candle holders with a couple of new designs and include one of them below. I took a pile of them with me and came home with just one left so here are some more I finished today. I had a couple come up to my stall in the afternoon and they do exactly what I do but live in another part of the country, we must have chatted for well over an hour and we shared many ideas with each other. They admired the work I had on display. The wife brought out several items from her shoulder bag to show me and the workmanship was brilliant, they work as a team, he makes the stuff and his wife does a lot of pyrography on many of the things they make.

As often happens a lady came up to me and asked for a name sign and asked if she could call back in half an hour to pick it up. What was so encouraging for me is that over the previous few weeks i have put several ideas into practice and made a couple of everything and thay have all sold well. Now that summer is well and truly here we are seeing many more punters come into the hall so sales have been very good.

nadnerb · 10 Jun 2015

Good stuff Geoff
I like the candle holders, what is the black wood?
Regards
Brendan

gilljc · 10 Jun 2015

I like those with the black, was curious about the wood too, or is it painted?

Chippygeoff · 10 Jun 2015

Re-the dark wood. I was talking with my wood supplier the other day and I ordered Oak, Iroko, Maple and some Beech and as usual we got talking about different kinds of wood and he mentioned he had some Wenge. Although I had heard of this species I had never actually seen it in the flesh and the supplier went on the mention that it was extremely expensive. He went on to explain what it looked like and told me to look it up and that he would send me a small sample in with my order.

Yesterday after I had go back from the craft fair there was a note to say my wood was in the garden shed. I eagerly got the pile into the workshop and opened it all up, the so called small sample turned out to be a 4 ft plank 12 inches wide. I must admit, it was among the most beautiful woods I had ever seen. it is not actually black but a very dark brown and has the most amazing grain patterns. It went darker when the finish was applied. It is lovely to cut on the scroll saw, very hard like Ebony and took to the router very well indeed. It was lovely when I was applying the wax polish and seeing the wood soaking it up and had a lovely sheen when i buffed it up.