Climbing Flower Clock

Another clock today. I had a lot of fun with clocks and hope to do a bunch more soon. 

This one is 3/4"pine with a 1/4" bb ply back, stained with Watco Cherry danish oil, which stains and seals in one step. 

The clock face is 2 3/4", but could, as with most of the other clocks I've made to date, be made larger or smaller.

An open invitation to any artististic types following this blog to come up with your own art to be cut into a clock like this. Maybe we'll have a contest and the winner gets a free clock with their design cut into it. Hmm...

In the meantime, this clock is available and custom models can be made. Send me your ideas. Please check out the other posts and contact me for pricing and shipping info.

Hummingbird Clock

My apologies regarding the low quality of the pictures today...my wife was busy so I took them myself. Typically we have a good arrangement: I design, cut, sand, stain and finish and she photographs. Apparently it's a better arrangement than my taking pictures myself :(

This nifty little clock would look good on a mantle or accent table or wherever else you could think of to put it, really. Backer is 3/4" pine stained Minwax Red Chestnut, front is 1/4" baltic birch plywood stained Minwax golden pecan.
The clock face is 2 3/4".

Other designs can be made available. Just let me know what you'd like to see.

Spalted Coffee Table

Ok, so since everyone wants to see it and since you've all been nice today, consider this a bonus post for Sunday (even though it's 1/8th Monday already!)

The long awaited coffee table matching the wormy soft maple side table from a week or so back. 

I'll actually keep the details to a minimum. The construction is similar to the side table, spruce body, stained Minwax Early American. Solid wood top, wormy soft maple, finished all over with multiple coats of Interior Diamond Gloss Varathane.

I was (and am) very happy with how this turned out. The pictures cannot capture the inherent beauty of the maple. Beautiful spalting and a captivating quilting (or curling) pattern. The bottom pic best captures the quilting pattern.

It is a little more reddish than the pic shows as well.

I don't expect this piece to sit around for long. Contact me for details regarding purchase. I will say I'm cheaper than Ikea and if you buy this with the side table you'll save considerably.

As always, custom work available for your furniture. Maybe it's a small table like this or a large dining room table or a family sized picnic table. Maybe you like this spalted maple, or you'd prefer oak or walnut or elm, or maybe you'd like a basic, inexpensive table made from pine, spruce or hemlock. Contact me to see what I can make for you.

Dinosaur Pull Toy and Custom orders

So last weekend a woman came by my booth at the Marmora farmer's Market with her young son. He really liked the standup dinosaur puzzle I had on display, but she thought he was a bit young for it. So she asked if i could make her a pull toy in the same design. 

I could say that I couldn't do it, but from the pic below you've probably figured out the opposite is true. I told her she could pick it up the following weekend if she didn't need it sooner. "Really? You can have it ready that fast?" she asked. Apparently people are used to waiting a long time for custom orders to get done. 

I'd love to say that I'm so far behind in custom orders that I have a 3 week waiting period, but that's not true. Most of my sales come from in stock items, but I always prioritize my custom orders for a few reasons. 

First of all, it's a sale already made. After a bad experience with one customer (upon whom I am still waiting for pickup and collection) I have made it policy to request 1/2 price down payment minimum. If you've already paid for something, you don't want to wait longer than you have to, and I want to fulfill a paid obligation before anything else.

Second, it just seems to be good policy to look after your customers. Since I try to keep my regular items in stock, people just buying those items are almost never put out or waiting. They come looking and leave (I hope) happy. People who are looking for custom made items though, come looking and leave hopeful. I want them to have a pleasant experience and part of that is expedient service.

That's really what it's about for us here at maple Ridge, doing our very best to provide customer delight. Not just customer satisfaction. We like to see someone's eyes light up when they get that item that they ordered but have never before seen. That look that says to us, "Wow...that's even better than I had hoped!"

I get compliments on my work all the time, but the greatest compliments involve things like "Can I have a bunch of your cards to give out to my friends?" That's when i know I've done my job well.

So anyway...
About the dinosaur. The lady picked it up this past Saturday and was pleased with it. It is now among our regularly stocked items. It's made of 1 1/2" spruce with 1" pine wheels and some 3/16 dowel for axles. As with all of our pull toys it can be made into a wheeled toy (without the string pull) or a puzzle, or just a standup toy or scaled down (or up) as a cutout figure.

And for all the kids out there who like dinosaurs...I think  some more might be on the way soon..

*Note: The wood surface in the foreground is from my wormy maple coffee table. I finally took some pics and might even do an extra post tonight showing it off.

Coffee...or else!

So, if the feedback I get on these signs is any indication, caffeine may be the only thing holding our world back from the brink of destruction. 

Apparently a lot of you out there are coff-a-holics and the world at large is at danger when you don't get your fix, especially in the morning. 

The good news is that now you can advertise the threat you pose to society to those around you in an effort to make the world a safer place. Think of it as an invitation to others to promote world peace by getting you a coffee. 

Made from 2 layers of 1/4" baltic birch plywood and stained to make you think of your favourite caffeinated beverage. Put it up at home, work, your locker at school, wherever you like.

Other custom signs available upon request. Let me know what I can make for you.

Mantle Clock

I'm always looking for new areas to branch out into, and the idea of small clocks has appealed to me for a while now. 

This little guy has a 2 3/4" clock face, is cut from solid 3/4" pine and stained walnut with Circa 1850 Danish Oil. The pattern I have to credit to Steve Good. 

Overall I was pretty happy with the way this came out. In particular I love the way the Danish oil hit the wood grain and made these really cool streaks across the wood.

And that's part of the reason I like stain over paint. Rather than cover up the wood, it brings out the wood. I can only hope to get this effect on another project sometime.

This particular clock is still in my possession, but I can't say for how long. First come, first sold. Of course others can and will be made, but no promises I can make them look like this.

Expect to see more clocks showing up in the next little while and as usual, if you have an idea for a clock that you'd like, contact me and we'll try to make it happen.

Man Cave Sign

Ok, so every guy wants a man cave, and a lucky few actually get one. 

But it's not enough to just have the man cave if no one knows, right? You have to advertise. It's kind of like the "No Girls Allowed" sign on your treehouse as a kid. 

A few serious things about this sign: 

First, it's cut from solid 3/4" pine, and as shown is unfinished in all respects, other than a basic sanding. 

As per usual it can be made out of any wood, so long as you are willing to pay the extra materials cost for that wood. 

Secondly, it doesn't have to say "MAN CAVE". It could say "THE SMITH'S" or "WELCOME" or whatever else you can think of. 

Pricing varies depending on height and number of letters. Stain, paint or finish are additional costs, but of course you could also do those yourself.

Call or email for specific details.