A Weekend In Roseneath

As mentioned earlier in the week, I will be setting up at the Roseneath fair for the weekend. If anyone happens to be in the area, feel free to stop by (I'll be outside) and say "Hi".

Otherwise, I'll "see" you all next week. In the meantime, check out some other posts and maybe start doing some Christmas shopping :)

Custom Clock Offer...In Detail

Ok, so a few of you have pointed out that my limited time custom clock offer is a bit vague on details. Or rather, what a custom clock order might look like is a bit vague. So I'm going to try to provide as much information on my custom clocks as possible.

What Can You Make Into A Clock?
First of all let me be clear: almost any design, shape, pattern, picture or idea can be turned into a clock. My gorilla pull toy (not on the blog yet) can be turned into a clock. A picture of your grandparents can be turned into a clock. Any solid cut word that I do can be turned into a clock. Any...well, you get the idea.

Clocks can be made out of any kind of wood. Plywood, veneer, cookies (not the baked kind, it's a round piece of wood cut from a log), and of course dimensional lumber. This might include a board from an old building, a cookie from a tree that used to be outside your house, timbers from an old ship or boat, or a nice piece of driftwood from your family vacation.

What Kinds Of Shapes And Sizes Can You Make Into A Clock?
Shapes are limited only by your imagination (and the laws of physics: I can NOT make 5th dimensional artwork into anything 3D. You know who you are...).

I have thought about posting some of my already existent patterns here, but frankly it would take too long. Feel free to look around online for samples of wooden clocks or email me requesting some samples.

Suffice it to say that clocks can be shaped like almost anything: boats, animals, people, buildings, etc. and they can be either 2 dimensional (cut from a single piece of wood with no significant depth) or 3 dimensional as with a box wall clock or a grandfather clock.

Size varies depending on a few considerations.
Clocks with traditional faces (such as those pictured here) are made with clock inserts which range from 1 7/16" to around 8 1/2" (I think I might be able to track down some 11-12" ones as well.
Clocks with dials and movements (no "glass" face) can be made in almost any size, with dials made from metal, wood or paper depending on your preferences.

A quick note on clock faces: There are a wide number of options available for clock faces. I will not try to list them all here, but they include different coloured bezels (the usually metal rim around the face), backgrounds, number styles and more.

What  Other Options Do I Have?
Once the basic designs are dealt with (materials, shape, size, face) the remaining options are fairly simple.

Colour
I tend to stain a lot more than I paint. To me, if you're going to have something made out of wood, why cover up the grain? Ideally if you want a particular colour we can just use that kind of wood, but since walnut is around 5-7 times the price of pine...well, suffice it to say I use a lot of pine in custom work for folks.
To see some colour samples of what is available to me check out the Minwax website here: http://www.minwax.com/wood-products/stains-color-guide/ and the Watco page here: https://www.rustoleum.com/CBGProduct.asp?pid=46.

Please don't choose from the Minwax Polyshades collection as it is a product I refuse to use. It's like the one failed Minwax product...otherwise those guys do great work.

I am also open to trying new products as long as I can obtain them (or you provide them). Minwax and Watco just happen to be what I can procure locally and without hassle.

Finish
The final decision is basically how shiny do you want it. Finishing options range from plain oil (low protection, easy maintenance and repair, low sheen) to paste wax (low protection, high sheen) to polyurethane finishes (high protection, available in matte, satin or high gloss).

And that's it. You've ordered a custom clock. I know it seems like a lot to take in, but once you have the idea the consultation (in person, email takes longer) is normally under 10 minutes. My favourite thing about making a custom piece is that it is the only one of its kind anywhere. Patterns are fine and many of them look great, but for a true heirloom piece, custom is the way to go.

The Deal
I've mentioned this elsewhere, but this seems a good place to reiterate it:

Until the end of October I will give a 10% discount on any clock. Not 10% off material, or labour but off the final price. This is a token of my appreciation to my many customers who have made the first few months of business successful. For those who think that 10% isn't much of a discount, please keep in mind that my prices are already phenomenal and I am a one man shop with pretty small margins already, producing one of a kind handmade products. 10% is pretty sweet!

Note: Discount does not apply to shipping costs. Shipping is billed at cost so I have no wiggle room in shipping prices.

More Hummingbirds! Free stander decor

Who doesn't love hummingbirds? 

This small decor item stands around 6" high and features what everyone likes to see outside their window: two hummingbirds sipping from flowers. 

Just because the season is getting late for real ones doesn't mean you can't see hummingbirds all year round. 

Solid pine stained Golden Pecan (Minwax).

A reminder of my custom clock event. I've been urged to hold it over for one more month so it will run to the end of October. However, I've decided to sweeten the deal even more. Instead of the 5% discount on all clocks I've decided to bump it up to 10% (maybe it's the Christmas spirit).

So there it is: order any clock until the end of October and save 10% off the regular price. Email me for more details, designs or ideas for your custom clock.

Hummingbird Pedestal Candle Stand

Candle holders always seem to be popular, and one of the great things about them is there's just so much room for personalization that you can really make them your own. This is another great pattern from Steve Good (and I really need to have my wife take some better pictures of it!). 

3/4" pine construction throughout and stained with Circa 1850 Walnut Danish Oil, this pedestal stands about 9" high to the top of the hummingbirds with a small platform in the middle to support a small jar or cup style candle (though once you buy one, what you put on it is up to you). Four hummingbirds surround the platform, as though preparing to sup from the candle.

A great decoration or gift for any hummingbird enthusiast, there is (as always) room for custom touches. Different colours, sizes and finishes are a start, but the hummingbirds could easily be swapped out and replaced with various other images.

This concludes my post heavy day. Tomorrow expect to be back to only one post. Preparations for the Roseneath fair will be keeping me busy and I've no shortage of custom work to finish up either. Please remember to try and get orders in well before you need them.

Fish Tank

So you 'd like to have pets, but here's the thing: 

You're allergic to cat hair, you don't like small, yappy dogs and don't have the space for large dogs. Birds are loud and your fish, well, they keep going down that porcelain highway that apparently leads to the ocean (eventually). 

So why not get some pets that are affordable, low maintenance (just an occasional dusting!), quiet and can be tailor made to suit your decor?

That's exactly what you get with this fish tank. A Steve Good design, it can live (so to speak) in any room in your house, leaves no mess and costs nothing to feed!

Seriously though (and to avoid potential lawsuits) these aren't real fish (anyone remember their disappointments with sea monkeys?) just a bowl and fish cut from solid 3/4" pine and stained Minwax Golden Maple. Standing around 8" tall it can (of course) be made in almost any colour to best suit your decor or tastes in wooden fish.

Keep watching today for more products, updates and news.

"Lucky" Horseshoes

So after yet another hare-brained week I think we've finally got things fairly straightened out with computers and internet connectivity. Hopefully this will be a post filled week showcasing lots of new stuff from the past 3 weeks or so. 

Before I go further into the post, I'd like to announce that I will be attending the Roseneath Fair this coming weekend. Roseneath is a pretty little town but a little off the beaten path. It might be worth finding though, if only to go to the fair and see one of the last wooden carousels around (reputedly build in the early 1900's). Of all the fair's I've been to this year, this is the closest to the Durham/Toronto area, so any of you from those areas might have a bit of fun in the country if you take the time to make the trip up. I'l be parked outside somewhere in my little tent booth. Now, onward...

Speaking of fairs (see how I segued into that?) these were originally made up for the Madoc fair a couple weekends ago. While it's nothing new for folks to turn horseshoes upside down for good luck, I think it's safe to say that these add a bit of a new dimension to that somewhat aged premise. 

These aren't bent out of pig iron or sweet steel, just solid pine, but hopefully they won't have to stand up to the rigours of being trampled by horses either. 

The "Lucky" cowboy is surrounded by stars on his bucking bronco and is stained (I think) Minwax Early American. The horseshoe has "hammer" or "T" ends and the font is (I'm pretty sure) Cooper Black.

The "Lucky" horse has nail holes cut into the shoe, stained Circa 1850 Walnut Danish oil and has "L" shaped ends and a basic sans serif font that I'm not entirely sure of just right now.

As always, I encourage you to feel free to "order off the menu" so to speak. Almost any word could be cut into the bottom of one of the horseshoes, and various images could be placed between the "arms" of one of the horseshoes. In short, you could order a one of a kind, custom gift for someone, whether they're a horse lover, country lover or just a plain old lover of neat wooden curios.

Be sure to keep an eye on the blog this week for lots more updates. Don't forget about our month long clock special, and right now I'm booking in Christmas/Craft sales in various locations, so if you'd like to have me in your area or happen to know of a sale that you think would be worthwhile for me to attend, please email me the relevant info. I may also soon be starting a referral/benefits program to run until Christmas, but that's still in the planning stages. That's all for now!

Custom Clock Offer Held Over

So last week I made an offer to knock 5% off all orders on custom clocks that were ordered by the end of the week. It seems it was a good offer and so I've decided to extend it for a limited time AND to extend it to ALL CLOCKS.

Just to make sure you're paying attention. Every clock that I make for you that you order while this offer is on will be 5% off the normal price. Doesn't matter if I design it or you design it or it's one that I've already done before. All clocks that are ordered (not just picked up off the table) will be 5% off.

I haven't decided how long this offer will end, might be the end of this week, might go to the end of the month. Don't dilly dally, contact me now.

*Note: The PC with all my pics on it is having connectivity issues this morning so at the time of posting I can't put pics of clocks up here. Check previous posts to see some samples.

Bookends

Well, after a decent weekend at the Madoc Fair I'm finally back to updating the blog again. First of all I want to send out my thanks to the hard working people of the Madoc Agricultural Society and the Fair Board who did a great job putting together the fair this year. Good job guys and I hope to be back next year!

It's been far too long since I've put up new products, and that doesn't mean i haven't been making any! So without further ado...

These bookends are from some designs by Steve Good, but I hope I've done them justice. 

They are 100% pine, and please don't think that they are limited to what's below. These are the ones I've made so far, but I hope to make many more and some of them may even have your design on them!

The butterfly has been stained with Watco Cherry Danish oil. Maybe it's just me, but something about the combination of "cherry" and "Danish" makes me a bit hungry...I'm better now.

I did a count while drilling the pilot holes for the wings of this set, and I'm pretty sure I counted 31 holes per wing. Good thing they turned out nice!

The cool thing about the weiner dog is that when you put book in, it gets even longer!
Stained with Minwax Early American and also available as a custom job in almost any kind of dog you want. Warning: Teacup poodles may be larger than the actual dog.

Every time I move it occurs to me that I wish I had a few strong men around to help move my books (I have a modest and diverse library). Now at least I have a pair of strong men to at least hold up a few of them. Stained Circa 1850 Walnut Danish oil.

These would be a great gift for the bookhound or bibliophile on your list this Christmas, and the best part is you can add a little "personal touch" to make it just right for that person. Contact me to discuss customization of this or any other item you might see on the blog or on display if you see me in person.

Be sure to watch the blog every day this week, there should be lots to post and I hope to keep up with at least 1 post per day. Don't forget to keep sending in your Christmas orders! It's closer than you think.

Madoc Fair Weekend!...and more apologies...

Alright, I'm sorry. Is that better?

I know I said I'd have some new pics of products up this week, and I had all the best intentions. However, I also had intentions of trying to serious improve my inventory of both existing and new products in time for...



The Madoc Fair!
Which means a few things. First, since I was crazy busy putting in 16 hour days in my shop this week (layouts, cutting, sanding, staining, finishing, etc.) I didn't get anything posted.

Second, this is great news because it means when (if) you come to the fair you can see the new stuff before anyone who watches the blog does.

Third, a few notes on things to watch for next week when I actually get some stuff posted. I DID get pics taken tonight, so I won't sell anything and then have nothing to show off for future sales.
Christmas ornaments have officially started. Not as many as hoped, but more than I have gotten done in the past few weeks. Some nice ones in BB ply and some really nice 3D cut pieces made from solid walnut with a hand rubbed oil finish on them. They look great. I hope to get a bunch more made in the upcoming weeks in walnut, cherry and maple, plus whatever else I can scrounge up.

Otherwise there's a whole bunch of free standing accent pieces and some wall hangers to watch for. Going to be posting some new (to the blog) toys, hopefully next week, and there are plans for some new toys which I'm very excited about getting to work on, but you'll have to wait to find out what they are.

Lots going on in the shop. August was a good month for us and we're hoping September will be a lot better as Maple Ridge Creations keeps gathering steam. Thank you to all who have helped out either by ordering, purchasing or just sharing the blog and liking the facebook page. My little venture is nothing without my customers and supporters.

Finally, it's almost 2am here right now and I have only just come out of the shop. Time for a quick shower and then bed. But I hope to see at least a few of you at the fair over the weekend. Stop by and say hi!

Small Wall Clock

A little bit of old school wall decor today. My wife will make me crop the pic and repost this later, but I'm too tired to care right now :)

1/4" Baltic birch plywood, 2 3/4" clock face, some Minwax Early American stain, a spot of glue and a session on the scroll saw and...voila!

I could talk more about the clock but...it's a clock. Unless you just arrived from the 17th century or some such silliness, you know what they are, how they work, etc. etc. etc. and you probably don't even care about most of the details I DID give you. All you care about is the pic and the assurance that it's a clock and not some sort of fake clock wall art nouveau or something.

What I do want to talk about is custom clocks (way more exciting, right?!)
I truly enjoy the challenge that comes with custom work, and clocks are one of those things that really have a lot of room to customize and make it your own. Not just size and colour here, but shape, wood, contours, interior cuts and designs, flat, box or 3D...all kinds of different things you can do.

So here's the deal. I'm about to put in an order for more clock faces sometime this week. Why do you care about this? I'll get to that in a minute.

My clocks are generally a bit pricier than, oh say, Walmart. There's a few reasons for that. Most of them involve quality of construction, materials used and the fact that I'm not running a shop in China (or Taiwan). That said, compared to most other custom made wooden clocks, my stuff compares rather favourably. Someone suggested to me the other day that perhaps my clocks were overpriced (most are in the $50 range give or take $10), so we went online and did a quick search for wooden clocks. Most of what we found was in the $200 - $300 range with some up around $1000 or more. Suddenly mine looked pretty good, and frankly, mine looked a lot better than many of the more expensive ones.

So back to why you care. If you put in an order for a custom or out of stock clock by the end of this week (Friday, September 13, 2013 [Friday the 13th in 2013? That's gotta have somebody riled up good!]) then I will knock an extra 5% off the final price.

Why? Because I love making clocks. More to the point, I love my loyal customers and regular blog followers. As an extra incentive, if this is your first time ordering from me I'll also include 2 complimentary business cards for no extra cost.

My Humble Apologies...

...For not updating more over the last few weeks.

Things have been hectic for the past few weeks, with fairs, special events and the regular farmer's markets taking place, as well as custom orders and regular sales both steadily climbing. Throw a dash of family life in there and there's not a ton of space for blogging left over.

In fact things have been so busy that not only have I not been posting as many items as I would like, I'm not even getting pics taken of them as often as I should. So I must apologise for falling behind on this, especially to those of you who actually check out the blog for gift and shopping ideas.

This week will be a busy one...again. The Madoc Fair is next weekend (mark it on your calendars, Sept. 13-15) and I will be working like mad to catch up on some backorders, restocking regular items, doing some custom orders and finally trying to kick out some new items in time for the fair.

However, during all of this madness (that I love) I will try to get some pics taken of all the stuff I haven't snapped yet, and hopefully I can manage a post a day as I was not too long ago. I have been trying, and still am, to make this blog an integral part of the Maple Ridge Creations customer interaction experience. However, I need your help.

Some of you have been following the blog for some time, and some of you have been following the business even longer and I am asking for your help in a couple of ways:

1. Be honest in your feedback. I like glowing reviews; I think everyone does; but in order for me yo continue to grow I need to hear the bad along with the good. I think I notice most of my mistakes, but feedback is only worthwhile if it's honest and both broad and specific .

2. Spread the word. Add the blog to your RSS feed, +1 us on google+, like us on facebook, share posts everywhere and remember that you do not have to be local to the Madoc area to buy or order things. So when someone is looking for toys: tell them about us. When someone is having a baby shower, wedding shower, anniversary, birthday, retirement party, or housewarming party: think Maple Ridge Creations. And please don't think that we're limited to just what's in stock. some of our best items have come about because someone decided to think outside the box.

One last thing you can do: If you are planning on ordering something for Christmas, please (please, please) don't wait until the last minute to do so. Things are already getting busy for Christmas and while I am trying to stay on top of them, if you wait until Dec. 20th to order something for your nephew or grand-daughter, I can't promise it will get there on time even if I can get it made within an hour. please try to get your Christmas orders in by the end of October. Obviously, if they come later i will still do my best, and I'd like to stay busy to the end, but less stress is good for all of us I think :) and earlier is...well...just better.

thanks to all of you who have helped make the business a success so far. We are hoping for greater things by the end of the year and have lots of plans for new products in the near future.

Toy Helicopter

One of my original toys, finally seeing the light of the internet!

I made one of these for my boys about 9 months ago, and to the credit of the wood, it's still in one piece!A little dinged up, but still in great shape. 

Made from spruce and pine (and a bit of BB plywood), sanded smooth and sold unfinished and chemical free so you know it's safe for your children and you can decorate it yourself (if you want). A couple small dabs of non-toxic wood glue hold on the pontoons and that's it. No metal parts are used, only wood.

A great toy for kids of all ages or a great gift for aviation enthusiasts. For custom staining or finishing additional fees apply, ask for details when ordering . Shipping available worldwide.

The Christmas season for custom ordering has officially begun. If you want something guaranteed in time for Christmas make sure to order soon.