The Job of the Shop Cat

So this weekend we put up the Christmas tree so Cheryl could show off her Christmas tree skirts. She sold one right away so I guess it worked, even without the lights on it.
So I have been busy working on seats this weekend. 11 seats. And My shop cat, Red, has been helping me. Now some of you might be asking...What does a shop cat do? Shop cats are essential parts of the

business. Cats inspect things and make sure things are made properly. Like boxes. Material quality.
Neck warmer. and
Chair warmer.



And he tells you when its break time. He even helps out with Cheryl's shop

This one passes!
As I write this, He is on my lap

causing me great hardship in typing. Cheryl doesn't need much help since she has her own Shop cat.

Prototype Tuesday

Only one wood duck seat tonight, So I decided to take a shot at carving up a couple of the plywood seats. I tried to keep the designs simple because I had to make the seats completely. Also, Cheryl suggests that I should try to target the Etsy crowd a little more with modern designs. I have always liked the Asian feel of the bird silhouette on a branch. Specifically a cherry blossom branch. with a little luck, I'll be able to post them on Etsy tomorrow.

Update! I just found a new site to sell my stuff on and want to see if I can set up a shop there. 1000 markets looks very promising! I'll have to blog about it in the future. I read about it on this ladies blog. Spike, peanut, and me she has a shop on it and it totally in love with it. From what I have seen. I like it so far. I'm off to inspect and research some more..

Snowy Monday

Carved up five seats today! Yeah! I took my time tonight since they will not be shipping out till Wednesday. Other than that, it snowed today and it looks like it is here to stay this time. It was SO bad driving this afternoon that Cheryl and I decided to bundle up with some chocolate and stay in for the evening. It was one of those first snows that come down fluffy, then melt and refreeze. Forming a lovely frictionless surface for your car to skate all over the road on. No traffic slide offs or accidents while we were on the road, but I'm sure there were before and after. I'm SO happy I don't have a job to commute to anymore! I used to have a 45 min drive at 6:30 am and on days like this I would always be late and see several dozen cars in the ditch! Now I can't believe I did that for well over a year and didn't have any accident for myself. Better to be late than have to pay a tow truck to come get ya.

More plywood seats

Carved up two seats tonight. I have four lined up for tomorrow so far. With my brief window of opportunity tonight, I decided to work on the plywood seats a little. Basically I got the cutting and shaping out of the way. The next time I get to work on them, I'll drill holes for the plastic bumpers and hinges. Then stain and poly the seat and underside of the lid. this is taking a little longer than I had first imagined, but doing things in stages like this seems to drag it out. I decided to take another stab at adding a short video to the mix. One of me cutting the seats from the plywood with a reciprocating saw( Black and Decker! YEAH! Can't wait till I get my band saw!) And one of me routing the edges.My camera assistant was not in the mood to deal with the huge amount of dust and chips the routing table produced, so the video is short. But you should get the idea. I had to do my own taping with the Saw, which is not the safest or smartest way to do things. After trimming them flush, I rounded over the corners. A small note on the short vids. One: long videos are boring and I find people talking are kinda distracting. ( exception, Wood Whisperer) Two: Blogger takes along time to upload one even as short as a 15 second one. I'll have to work on editing some longer ones in the future. (Music is much nicer on the ears than the roar of the tools) A small note on the router table. In case you can't see it, the seat is attached to a jig I cut for it. I put handy dandy handles on the top so I would have something to hold on to and keep my hands safe and clear. The router table scares the hell out of me! I give it the utmost respect! There is no attaching a severed appendage ( think finger) after a router bites ya! ( think blender)

Tuesday mad house!

This week is becoming a crazy week! I carved up 5 seats tonight and I'm still 7 seats behind. The cat won't stop meowing, tomorrow I have to fix my car, ( prob no carving then either) and I still have to find a supply of seats! now more than ever!. The guy from our old supplier called and told us they are discontinuing their line of seats. Monday I spend all night trying to make a seat completely out of plywood. I'm still on the fence on how it turned out, if it is sell able, if anyone will care or even notice, And if the seat will meet the "perceived" quality of customers. there is little doubt that a plywood seat is very stable and strong. Splitting is always an issue with the solid wood seats. Splitting would be virtually eliminated with the plywood. It all boils down to how it looks. So here is a picture of the bear seats made completely out of Baltic birch ( I really want to go with the red oak plywood) Cheryl thinks that we should stain it lighter, then the lines of the lamination would be less evident. The overwhelming evidence is that all the stores are discontinuing the solid wood seat. We will need to adapt or fold! Making the seats myself would mean more work for me, but I would have control of the supply. Ultimately, I'm going to have to take the plunge! And leave the cat to turn the lights off.