Building the arsenal

Santa's workshop is alive and well.  I believe the phrase has already been coined by Father Retail, "Christmas in July."  More stuff, please.

Throwing in a side dish

I thought I'd add a little spice to our Renegade event with a newer and improved version of something I made last year - the book light.  Last year's version was made literally by hand.  I carved out the hole with a knife during a two day long stint of rain here in southern california.  The store was still new and people weren't coming in just yet, so I had plenty of time on my hands, back in those days.  My how things have changed.

I got smart and decided to do my next incarnation with some proper tools.  Super clean. 

We also put together some fun mason jar drinking glasses...

We call them adult sippy cups.  We dropped one off a table and it held up just fine.  

And, our friend John Neiuber delivered one of his newest floor lamp creations.  He affectionately refers to them as "Floor-Deliers."  He takes chandeliers and attaches them to floor bases.  Good times.

Burning the candle at both ends.

It's been pretty hectic around here as the Renegade Craft Fair approaches.  The bottle cutting has gone basically nonstop for a few weeks, now.  

We tried a new glass chandelier with Voss water bottles and they've been a big hit.  

The first one left our shop the same day we finished it.  And, the next one is on it's way to Reno, only 5 days later.  I think we're on to something.   For Renegade, we're going to be displaying two or three chandeliers and several pendant lamps.  We've also decide to make a small selection of the ruler lamps. I've started cutting the bases.  Now it's sanding, staining and attaching the ruler.  

And, we did a photo shoot with the luminaries. 

Our catalog mock-up is ready for print!

Stay tuned for progress on the amazing centerpieces we're doing for an aluminum manufacturing company's holiday party!  Whew!  

   

It's a rough business.

Graveyard of broken dreams.  It's sometimes a rough business breaking glass for a living.  Today wasn't my day.

But one good thing...I realized that with all the leftover pieces of bottle bottoms, I could place the tops that I don't use right over a little tea light and make a neat table top hurricane lamp.

Pretty cool.

Been busy at the shop.

We've been pretty active over the past week, here.  First, Emily stopped by to see if we could help her with an idea she had.  That's my favorite question in the whole wide world, and the answer is always, yes!  She has an old guitar case and wants to turn it into a wall mounted jewelry cabinet.  Hmmmm.  I never met a project I didn't like.

 My first thought was to do it out of wood.   But, that wouldn't have been very inclusive since I'd have to make it at home.  I also wanted to use materials that could be cut right here at the store.  Aha!  Old books!

Luckily I have a pretty badass paper cutter that can make quick work of those thick covers.

Then, we scored the back sides of the covers for the contoured portions of her framework.

This thing is getting crazy!  She didn't know what she was getting herself into.

Clamps, for Pete's sake!  I taught her the art of clamping and glueing.   We finished our three days together with the first drawer, shaped like the bottom curve of the guitar.  

Emily is out of state for the summer, but we'll be resuming the build in August.  Good times!

Shortly after that we got cleaned out of our stash of bottle lamps.  I whipped up the first four-light pendant chandelier, which I think came out pretty cool.  

And now, all sights are set on Renegade.  Only 5 weeks away.  Lots to do!

A Cool Project

So, today a customer who took our wine bottle pendant class wandered in with a very unique circumstance.  We love those.  She wanted to take her guitar case...

...and turn it into a vertical jewelry display cabinet.  Oh boy!  I could hardly wait to get started. 

First, I gathered up a pile of books from the Prison Library Project down the street.  They get tons of books donated that they wind up having to unload.  Lucky for me!

Then, we got to business!  

We cut up the book covers into support pieces for her drawers.

Everything is going to be glued and framed out.  It's coming along pretty sweet.  She's coming back tomorrow, for more fun and games!

Keeping up

In between cutting bottles, I'm jumping back and forth between the workbench and the cash register, then to the computer, helping customers and searching for new design inspiration on the net.

I need to keep expanding our artwork inventory for the luminaries as I want to be loaded up for Renegade, in July.   A customer came in asking about some cool liquor bottles and our "Cigar Lounge" luminary.  I think it came out pretty cool.  This will wrap around the glass and look pretty smart in her little cigar lounge setting that she's creating for her husband's birthday party.

The bottle cutting wasn't going so well, yesterday afternoon, as I wound up breaking a bunch of bottles.  I think the heat was too much and I need to dial that down from now on.  I searched the dumpster behind my favorite architecture firm for cardboard tubes that hold blueprints.  The bottles fit perfectly inside, so they'll serve beautifully for packaging.

Here are two more bottles I made yesterday.  They blew up on Facebook.  It's always good when that happens.