Scroll Saw Blog

Fox Chapel attends Artistry in Wood regularly–they’re there for their carving magazine.  The editors walk around, and the last couple of years Shannon  (forgot her last name) has dropped by my booth.  Last year it was to look at the dragonfly magnets–and the board decided to let me do an article on them.  This year she looked at the veneered plaques.  Don’t know if anything will turn up, but we can always hope!

Meanwhile, I’m in MS helping parents put up walls in their barn. This is one of those red-iron buildings, same as my barn.

Just a few quick observations:

• We did a little better this year than last.  That’s despite not doing any active selling the first day. (I was too tired due to spending most of the week on I-65, combined with spending 1-1/2 hours on I-71–mostly looking at the same barrel)
• We actually sold less items this year than last; however, prices were a bit higher (inflation), so we came out ahead.
• We lost quite a bit of sales opportunities–since we’ve been moving to KY, I really haven’t had time to get stock up.  There was a lot of “Wish you had _____ breed/species”.  Butterflies were decimated; could probably have sold more if we had them
• Bookmarks were steady sellers, but there was only a few “massive buys” for stocking stuffers.  Bookmarks, like everything else, need replenishing.

Although sales were not as good as before the depression, we held our own this year despite many issues.  This is an impressive show, and we’re proud to be allowed to be there.

Due to the move I haven’t been at the saw, so stock is pretty low.  Add the constant road trips (4 trips on I-65, KY-AL just this week alone), and I haven’t really been trying to sell things.  Instead, I’m trying not to snore and taking money when folks try to buy things .

Having said that, Day #1 wasn’t too bad.  Probably a little down, but all things considering I can’t complain too much. I just did the day #1 results. Animal Puzzles are a little down, about 43% instead of the normal 50%. Earrings are running strong, despite being picked over from the last shows. Today they made 14% of sales, as did the butterfly magnets which normally come in 2nd.  Bookmarks where a steady stream, and made up 13% of sales.

I spoke briefly with Shannon Flowers, editor of Scrollsaw Workshop (they have a booth for Fox Chapel’s woodcarving magazine).  We talked mostly about our dragonfly article we’re writing. She introduced me to another of their staff (forgot the name), who’s re-running the Diana Tray article in a 2012 special issue.

I’m dead, but at least sales where made !

Yep, it’s been almost a month.  There is a “struggle” going on with the rental property in KY.  The property manager is not holding to the lease, and we are trying to get things resolved.  More details later, but for now we’re keeping things pretty silent.  Please pray that this solution is resolved.

On the plus side, Jenny’s house is rented out.  Getting this done was another reason for the lack of posts!

I did get a cougar cut out on the saw today, and prepped puzzles for another order.  However, these trips to Pendleton are getting pretty old.

Another project is a set of cougar earrings for a school teacher–their mascot is the “Cougars”.

Hopefully once the rental mess is taken care of I can get back to the saw more!

Was able to get some orders out this morning, but the main goal now is to empty the Pendleton house.  Looks like we’ve got a tenant, but he wants to move in pretty quickly. So, a bunch of orange & purple tubs from wal-mart are ready for filling tomorrow for another trailer load.

You know, I’d really rather be on the saw…

I’ve been out looking at the thinned pines.  It’s not as bad as I thought it would look.  Right now the farm is pretty open & you can get a good look at the trees.  While many are still small 30′ trees, a surprising number actually look like real trees: tall, with decent diameter. More trees got scarred than I’d like; hopefully they will recover.

Unfortunately, once spring comes around there will likely be an explosion in blackberries and other undergrowth. This will last a few years until the leftover pines form a new canopy.

On the scrollsaw front, I did get the saw set up temporarily down here. I was able to cut out some orders, including one that was completely paid-in-advance.

One completed puzzle, a border terrier named “Harry”, got shipped out today.  Though the post office takes a lot of grief, their priority mail service works well for me.  I can fill out the shipping label & pay postage on-line, and schedule the mailman to come pick it up without having to make a trip to the post office. UPS and FedEx will do that to a certain extent, but for it to be worthwhile you have to do quite a bit of shipping.

We did the Canton Flea Market yesterday.  The place was packed (the vender outhouses were all the way down the street–couldn’t make it through the bodies and had to go around), and some folks were doing very good business.  We were down from last year; partly because we just didn’t have the dogs in stock.  Rat Terriers? Min-Pins?

The earrings sold very well–best show yet for them. The jewelry (earrings and barrettes) seem to be doing better as time goes on.  The  biggest hold-back is the price: $9.35 for either.  When you’re competing with others selling cheap sets for $2-3, it’s hard to sell something at that price point.  But, since I’m the only one who has the scrollsawn beads, the folks who want them have to buy them from me.  That is, until somebody else with a scrollsaw starts cutting them out!

I almost signed up for the Wesson Flea Market.  When I got back, found out in the newspaper that they may have a space or two.  But after the last two shows this week I figured a break was in order.  Especially since the stock is pretty low right now.  Also, I need to see how the pine thinning went on the tree farm.

What’s next? Well, we’re still doing the move to Fort Knox, so the next show is Artistry in Wood in November. Which is good; a certain reality show is making life complicated starting today. I’m keeping kind of mum about that right now, as we’re not sure how that will work out, or if we really want to be involved in it.  Regardless, the whole story sounds like a reality show in it’s own right!

Down 20% from last year, but still best show yet this year.  Sold lots of bookmarks, several animal puzzles, but not as many butterflies as normal.

Currently getting ready to go to Canton for the flea market in a couple of days.  Hope to get the numbers crunched before hand.

We’re in Day #2 of Riley Days 2011.  The first day was pretty slow–two items sold.  Not sure why they have thursdays anyway, but we got moved in and set up.

Having the scrollsaw present makes up for slow hours.  This is a hard show to do: 4 days, 2 of them 0900 to 2100. However, the crowds are there–Most shows like this are dead around 1900-2000, but the crowds were still there at the end.  They had to run everybody out of the place.

Sales were slow considering the length of the day, but better than expected for a friday show.  Last year friday was dead, and most sales took place on saturday.  Hopefully the trend continues this year.