COMPETITION TIME

IT'S COMPETITON TIME.

 

How would you like to win this hand made craft room accessory worth £25?

 

Well all you have to do is look on my facebook page and find this item's partner in one of the albums and tell me here what it is called. Hint: It's beige and has a small green shrub behind it. The answer is the first comment on the picture.

Conditions of entering are simple.

1. You must post your answer here and not on facebook but if you want to leave a comment on facebook thats fine.
2. You must be willing to pay shipping of £5 (within the UK)
3. If you are entering from any other country you must be willing to pay shipping charges & or any other taxes that may be incurred.
4. No cash alternative or other item is available and the item is not allowed for resale purposes by another business. 
5. Competition closes monday the 18th March 2013 at midnight and winner will be announced by Friday the 22nd of March 2013.

By entering you agree to these terms.

Just to clarify this is not first past the post to win. The winner will be randomly drawn next week for those that put the correct answer the answer is only 3 words so look carefully before answering.

If you are the lucky winner please pop back to the blog and leave an honest review of the product suggesting any changes you would make or if it does what I hope it is supposed to.

Many thanks & good luck

Drew

 

 

I really don't understand...

...the British buying public.

I personally pride myself on quality when making my products and take pride in the knowledge that someone is getting a product that has been carefully considered to suit the purpose it is designed for. But, and this is where I am not quite getting to grips with things. Last year I started designing and making ribbon racks & various different crafter's tools.

Ribbon Rack.

But I recently found someone else making them and I hate to say it but the quality of workmanship just is not, in my opinion, as good. The difference is that they are selling them and I was not when I was making them. I stopped making them because the only way I could sell them was by reducing the price so I was just breaking even. It seemed pointless carrying on and made me feel the effort I put in just didn't seem appreciated. So what is it with price versus quality? Why do people prefer buying lower quality for what is in fact only slightly less than what I charge? Or is it that I don't push hard enough? I feel that if I keep pushing people will get annoyed with me. Am I wrong in thinking this and should I have pushed harder?

As a lot of you know I am trying to gain funding from(http://www.enterprisenation.com/funding-applications/handy-woodcrafts/from) Enterprise Nation. When I get this I hope to replace some tools and get a new machine that will help me. I really want to start producing items again as I have ground to a halt. Please take a moment and pop along to vote for me as I have been trying for 4 months now to gain this small grant.

Drew

Can you help us?

For the past several months I have been attempting to gain 500 votes with enterprise nation, who have teamed up with paypal and intuit to help out small busineses with grants of between £50 and £500. So far we have managed to get 321 votes so we are slowly getting towards our target of 500 votes. If anyone can find the time could you please pop along and support us by voting to help us reach the target so we can get the much needed funds to help us move our small business forward.
In the past 3 months I have had very little luck and some of my crucial power tools have come to the end of their life as they were only domestic tools and with lagging sales I do not have the funds to replace them.
I hate to be a pain but 5 minutes of your time is all I ask to go along sign up and cast a vote for us. You can sign up here http://www.enterprisenation.com/become-member/ then go here and vote http://www.enterprisenation.com/funding-applications/handy-woodcrafts/
sign up requires name, e-mail, username, and a password they dont even send you an e-mail to verify your account.

Thanks for reading and I hope you can help us.

Drew

Brand new sharp chisel V's Left hand

Yes the Chisel won. I have managed to maim my left hand and have to get surgery on Sunday to fix it. I wont post the horrible pics but well here is one that will give you an idea of how it is.

Ouch!!

What else can you do with a NHS sick pot?

Well I will update how things went after the drugs wear off tomorrow.

Shed renovation, Part Deux The Sequel.

Just when you think you have enough space something comes along and kicks that idea into touch. Yes we invested in a new lathe and its a tad bigger than the ones we had before so this set up of sheds / workshops is no longer working for us. So what follows is work in progress of our shed renovation the sequel, who said the second part isn't as good as the first?

How we looked a few days ago!

Part of the contents of the small white shed under cover.

The dead space between the sheds, there is more to the back and other side next to the fence. Time to reclaim the land.

Someone with a hammer came along and took great pleasure in dismantling the small shed.

And this folks is the end of day one!

Hopefully if the weather is ok I will manage to level the ground off tomorrow and start laying the slabs.

Keep an eye on what we are up to and see the progress of the new workshop.

Drew

Our First Bead Fair & week 15 from handmade Mondays

Yes I did say bead fair, sounds rather strange when you see a table full of wooden items but that's what we do. To say a trade fair is different from a craft fair is an understatement people were there with one purpose and that was to spend money and we were fortunate enough to be there and share in the atmosphere and to sell a few of our items.

Our table yesterday

I know it looks rather jumbled but it was a table full of display items and there was no other way to show them, what you have to remember is on a normal table there would maybe only be a small selection of these items.



Fold flat necklace display with hand turned knobs

  This small but quirky display piece can be adapted to any size with a fully rebated back which can be painted or padded out with your own material to show off you own stunning items. At the front of the picture is a selection of our bow jigs.

Bangle and Ring Cones

Just the thing to show off individual unique bangles and rings, to the right there is a chain stand, it's the extra pair of hands you need when making charm bracelets. Also some business card holders made from burrs and some turned pine ones. You can also see half a plier rack sitting on the collapsible stepped shelves.

One of the display trees

These trees are basically branches from wind felled tree's that we collect and once cleaned and treated are placed on a substantial base of timber to give stability. They give height to a table and are even functional at home for displaying your own jewellery so you can see at a glance what you have instead of digging through a box.

Bangle display

This is a combination of 3 different woods, beech top, walnut support and pine base. The lady who actually bought this could not stop raving about it and actually described it as a work of art, well I am just glad that she likes it, she had me put it to one side and told me not to sell it till she got back with some money. I think she will come back to me at some point for a taller version for hanging necklaces from.

So what did we take from today? Well we managed to hand out loads of cards and spoke to people about what we offer so hopefully this is the start of people knowing about us, Networking! such a brilliant word. It also gave us an opportunity to tell people that we can make items to their own specifications because today we had to pre-judge what people would like, I think we got the basics right but everybody is different and has different ideas, we just want to make their ideas a reality. So there you go that was our first bead fair and it definitely wont be our last.

Its week 15 over at 1stunique gifts and there are already lots of blogs listed for you to have a read at so please pop along and say hi to Wendy and take some time out to read what other crafters and artists have been up to this past week.

Many thanks for reading my waffle and check back regularly to see what we are up to. If you want please follow us on facebook that's where we usually showcase our concept ideas prior to production, your feedback is invaluable to us so please feel free to comment on our ideas we can't get it right if we don't know what you think of them.

Drew

Donna's 1st international commission & Hand made Monday

We are onto week 14 of handmade Monday and we are joining in with Wendy at 1st Uniqie Gifts and this week I havent really had a lot to do, Coughs thats a lie if I ever heard one. Ok se we have had our share of small issues this week one being the lack of a bandsaw blade which I really needed to to make items for an event we are attending on the 8th of May in Edinburgh (http://www.edinburghbeadfair.co.uk/). Anyway I will be sure to update next Monday with what happend on the day. I know this week is going to be a nightmare trying to get stuff finished for Saturday.

This week My wife and I were asked to make a lidded box and a chalice for a customer in the USA as a gift for their girlfriend. After seeing something similar on our website and contacting Donna (her 1st international commission) on facebook they wanted a darker timber so we suggested walnut to him which he agreed to. Below you will see the Chalice being worked on by me and the finished articles (already viewed by the client).

Donna decided to take pictures.

Walnut held in place with hot glue.

Lidded Box by Donna

Chalice by Drew

For any of you that have me as a friend on facebook you will also see that I have been really busy with our back garden. The next project out there is to extend the large shed to gain valuable work space so we can turn the smaller shed into dust free storage and finishing environment.

Please feel free to have a look at out website http://www.handywoodcrafts.co.uk/ we will be updating and adding items on there very soon.

Thanks for reading.
Drew

Project polly tunnel the completion & hens, ducks and geese

As a continuation of Mondays blog here is the completed polly tunnel photo blog and just for Wendy at 1st unique gifts some pictures of the chickens aswell :)

Just about done some tightening up and thats it :)

Both doors open for a clear look through.

Ohh one of the ponds I dug last year (by hand)

From the back.

it's like a greenhouse in here

I did put a raised bed in on the right but I was tatally knackered and forgot to take a picture

This is a Shed that we built last year (used) and I refitted inside for the chickens

Just getting out this morning to get their grub.

There is a food tray in there somewhere :)

Notice the only duck? This is the duck that was raised by a chicken and now has an identity crisis.

The second shed being opened and out come the geese, the ducks and the rest of the chickens

The second paond i dug last year for the ducks to have a wee swim in.

Well there you go polly tunnel completed.

Drew

Does this count as crafting?

Well time has passed somewhat fast recently and I have been up to alsorts. I dont really know if you would count these projects as an actual craft but I thought I would share a photo blog of what I have been up to this past week. After you have read this you should pop along to Wendy at 1st unique gifts and read her blog and the others that join in on hand made monday



Marking out the ground for a polly tunnel on Tuesday



Two hoops in place

4 hoops in place with support rail

all the metal work now complete and end of day one

day 2 (friday) putting up the timber door frames

all the timber work on the frame complete

I ran out of time on Friday and will have to go back on Tuesday next week to finnish the plastic and put the sliding doors in place.

On Thursday I was at my mums allotment where she had a bit of unusable ground beside the shed so she wanted decking put there.

the ground was covered to help stop weeds coming up.

Frame put together now to start leveling it before the boards go on.

Stuart cleaning the roof, he can now reach it.

all the boards nearly in place, just waiting on some more screws to arrive.

all done and this is my mum from behind looking at daniel

I drank the coke lol.

all done and tidying up to go home :)

So there you go a photo blog of what I was up to this week  maybe not crafty but i am feeling the effects of using muscles that have been dormant for about 6 months.
Hope you like the blog
Drew