Split the log:
Mounted and ready to go:
Got the outside shaped:
And then the rim blew apart while I was carving the inside. Fuck.
But I managed to find the bits and reconstruct it:
…so it should be recoverable.
Irritating, though. Not having much luck this week.
I’m getting a Star Wars vibe off of these. Remember when Obi-Wan was out on the platform and turned down the tractor beam? Same general feel.
Would something like this work for wood?
You do beautiful work. I look forward to your posts showing your creations.
All done, quite happy with how neatly the repair turned out:
No idea what the timber is; it came from a bit salvaged from a dump.
I did a second bowl from the other half of that log, and this time I’m going to varnish it to make it usable as an eating bowl:
Unfortunately, it needs about six hours of drying time between coats, and trying to make anything else in the shed while it’s drying would result in sawdust all over the varnish. So no new pieces for a few days.
Just getting started, so it’s a bit bare-bones for now and the prices are likely to need some finetuning, but here it is:
Advice appreciated if anyone has any.
Somewhat nervous about the store.
I don’t want to piss anyone off by selling them something that they aren’t happy with, and pretty much everything I make has at least one little thing that isn’t quite perfect.
—
BTW: I currently have everything listed at price + postage. Postage would be about $15 within Australia, about $40 overseas. That’s in Aus dollars; discount as appropriate for customers that aren’t paying in Pacific Pesos.
Etsy tips say that buyers hate postage fees, and suggest that it may be better to instead just raise the price and list postage as free. As in, instead of listing something as $60 plus $15 postage, I’d be better off just listing at $75 with “free” postage within Australia (and $25 postage for overseas customers).
Thoughts?
It’s a weird trick, but it seems to be the case. I mean, it’s the same price either way, but if it’s rolled into the cost, people tend not to complain about it…
[ETA] I also really like how you posted the pictures of your progress for each piece. Very cool! Have you filmed any of these… there are tons of wood working videos up on youtube that seem to be popular, but I’m not sure if I’ve seen any with people turning pieces of raw wood into bowls and such. It might be a niche you could get into as well. And lots of people who do that also have patreon pages to support their video work, in addition to their wood working activities.
I’ve come around to the style of thinking that shipping should always be “free.” The number one complaint among visitors to the US is that we don’t include the tax in price, and it is stupid, because I want to know how much money I need to spend to take the thing out of the store, not some theoretical price to theoretically buy the thing. When shopping online, I would also like to take it for granted that the price I see is the price I pay to make the thing mine in actual fact… and it’s true I exclude non-free shipping from my search results for that reason. I can’t fully claim it’s rational, but I definitely do it, and so do many others. I think part of it is that you never really know how much shipping is going to be until the very end, and that’s always a bit of a turnoff.
I’m sure it’ll turn out okay. You might have to eat it a few times as you learn some of the harder lessons, but there’s not a lot of bowl related liability out there. Absolute worst case is you lose a sale, a customer, and the bowl in one incident. But as long as you have lots of pictures, people will be able to overlook the defects… especially because “handmade” goods are usually never quite perfect.
If it helps, here’s some oddly relevant internet bowl related humor. (I know you make more than bowls).
Added a bunch more pieces (more to come), changed the shipping to free, tweaked a few other things. Prices still extremely approximate.
Even if I almost never sell anything, I still think it’ll be worthwhile. The idea that I’m making product for my store will help motivate me while I’m working; the thought that I was just piling up endless quantities of bowls for no reason was getting a bit demoralising.
Working on my largest Halloween costume to date: a stegosaurus.
One of my kids will be the front legs, I’ll be the back, and another kid will be riding on top.
The head can be puppeted thanks to the mechanism from a dollar store pooper-scooper, so the plan is for the dinosaur to just eat the candy.
I think that’s the main reason people open second hand bookshops.
Are you putting that one in your Etsy store?
Probably not; it’s the first one I’ve ever varnished, and I think I could do a better job of it second time around. It looks fine at distance, but if you examine it really close up there’s one patch where the varnish is a little bit cloudy (imperfect sanding on one of the early varnish layers, now preserved under the good varnish layers on top of it).
But I’ll do another one fairly soon.
Since my mom gave me her old pressure cooker, I have been making stuff with it.
Jamaican curries and the like. Bought sardines and canned them in olive oil. Sooooo goooood, although no cheaper home made than store bought cans.
Decided to try some local fish instead to see how it turns out. Pictured, a bunch of chub and shiners. I have eaten the chub before and their meat is pink and tasty. Amazing. Should be interesting.
