Sunday Ramblings Vol.9

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*Sunday Ramblings is a weekly post where we share our personal anecdotes and thoughts. These posts won’t necessarily be directly related to In the Rough, but the likelihood is that they will be while creating a transparent look into the business.*

*This is Volume 9*

Did you notice the lack of posts lack week? I hope you did but are too shy to say anything! 😉 I took the week off… Easter, ya’know? I don’t celebrate, but thanks for asking.

Tonight I want to let everyone know that our next product is really really close to being ready! We’ve got our first mock-up, which often takes much longer to make than the ones following it, but it’s done and it’s ready and it will shine, brightly I might add, for you! It’s a lamp! A really pretty, up-cycled and handmade lamp! Can we all say ‘Eeeeeee!!!!!!’ all together now?! I know I’m excited, I hope you are too! Pics incoming.

How’s Spring treating all of you?

Xoxo

Sunday Ramblings Vol.8

DanaLeave a comment

*Sunday Ramblings is a weekly post where we share our personal anecdotes and thoughts. These posts won’t necessarily be directly related to In the Rough, but the likelihood is that they will be while creating a transparent look into the business.*

*This is Volume 8*

I’m finding myself sitting staring at the screen tonight. Not quite writers’ block, more grasping at finding a worthy subject to write about. I have toyed with the idea of writing about things that inspire me, but I want that to come on a different day, not during my Sunday Ramblings. Maybe on a Wednesday or Thursday post to break up the week and add a bit more pizazz to the blog. That still leaves me wondering what to write about right now. So, maybe for my first ‘Inspirations’ post, I’ll start here…

This chair – The Eames Lounge Chair, has been my furniture raison d’etre since as long as I can remember. I told Scott I’d take this chair as my engagement ‘present’ in lieu of a ring, but alas, I got a ring (it’s a beautiful ring and I love it but, but… this chair!!).

eames-chair-2.jpg

If you don’t know anything about this chair and ottoman, they were designed by brothers Charles and Ray Eames for the Herman Miller company. It took years of tinkering and perfecting but was finally released in 1956. This chair is still relevant today. It has and will continue to stand the test of time when it comes to furniture, design, quality, and craftsmanship. If you’ve never noticed it before, you’ll start seeing it everywhere now (sorry, not sorry) – movies, reproductions in offices, other furniture stores, TV shows, etc. It’s stunning and understated, a quiet kind of cool.

I want to get to a point with In The Rough where my pieces exude even a fraction of whatever magic this chair has. I want people to think similar thoughts about what I’m offering the world. No, I don’t believe I need to sell something for $10,000 to get this reaction, but something for $20 can be just as admired and loved… at least that’s the hope! I can assure you this isn’t the last time you’ll hear of my love for this chair. I’ll likely write a much longer post about it some day, since it is the inanimate love of my life.

One day, this chair will be mine. In the meantime, I’ll keep creating things and reaching for my Eames dreams 🙂

 

Sunday Ramblings Vol.7

DanaLeave a comment

*Sunday Ramblings is a weekly post where we share our personal anecdotes and thoughts. These posts won’t necessarily be directly related to In the Rough, but the likelihood is that they will be while creating a transparent look into the business.*

*This is Volume 7*

Let’s change pace today. In The Rough isn’t moving quickly, and it’s completely my fault. I’m getting more hours at work and I’m not used to working this much and juggling other things. Like making things, and swimming, and planning a vacation, and sleeping, and finding time to spend with friends. I’ll get a new routine, I know I will, but until then some things need some give.
Right now there’s inventory for some items, Etsy is up, I have my ever-growing to-do list, so I can sit back and let things work for themselves for at least a few weeks. In the meantime I’ll read some of the Etsy Handbook, I’ll fit swimming into my schedule (without feeling overwhelmed), and I’ll try to sleep – because I love to sleep. My bed is the comfiest! 🙂

Anyhow, lack of sleep and an utterly too early morning has me grasping at words. Time to watch some mindless tv, work on my Low Poly Craft raccoon and sooner rather than later get to sleep.

 

Sunday Ramblings Vol.6

DanaLeave a comment

*Sunday Ramblings is a weekly post where we share our personal anecdotes and thoughts. These posts won’t necessarily be directly related to In the Rough, but the likelihood is that they will be while creating a transparent look into the business.*

*This is Volume 6*

This week, Sunday Ramblings happens on Monday!

Short and sweet though, at least for now… but…. we got our Etsy page up! It’s bare-bones but we’re getting there. At least we have some things listed and we’ll be adding more soon. Now it’s on to reading the Sellers Handbook and becoming really successful! 🙂

Click here to check out our Etsy Shop.

 

Sunday Ramblings Vol.5

DanaLeave a comment

*Sunday Ramblings is a weekly post where we share our personal anecdotes and thoughts. These posts won’t necessarily be directly related to In the Rough, but the likelihood is that they will be while creating a transparent look into the business.*

*This is Volume 5*

Do you ever sit back at what you’re doing now compared to what you were doing five, even 10 years in the past? I can’t help but going back to roughly 11 years ago when I was fairly confident I’d be living in Grand Rapids, MI, studying how to build furniture. The brochure made it look idyllic. Studying and building furniture in a state-of-the-art building surrounded by nature. Everywhere I looked I heard nothing but positive things about both the school and the city. I was excited. I built a portfolio – I don’t remember what it consisted of anymore. I filled in the application… I did everything short of actually applying. That excitement didn’t last that long. I somehow didn’t realize the price for an international student. $30,000 tuition for one year? It was a four year program. That didn’t include anything else. I’d need a place to live, food, textbooks, materials? A new computer… what else? Surely the expenses didn’t end there. My excitement and that dream got put to a staggering and shattering halt. Maybe I wasn’t excited as I thought. As I do, I kept moving forward. The dream got slotted away somewhere deep and dark and my daily grind turned to finishing my English degree.

Since then, the dream changed. It changed a lot. I landed in a spot that was at first inspiring (maybe blindly so) and eventually a great teacher, in the sense that I learned a lot about the rights and wrongs about business, but also about myself. I found my passion. I ended up back in school, back with a dream to do things for myself. Am I a bad employee? I don’t think so. But I think I have a lot to offer the world, or on a smaller level, my community. This new dream struck me so hard it felt like it had always been a part of me – like another limb, one that I didn’t know about but once I found it I wasn’t sure how I’d lived without it before then! Sounds cheesy, I know. My apologies.

The dream today is still the same. It feels farther now than when I went back to school, especially as now I’m paying off student debt that really slows everything down. Money being the biggest deterrent… or the only one? In my mind it’s the only thing stopping me, but in reality I know there’s a lot more to it than that. I know that I still have a lot of work to do to get to where I really want to be, but I also know that I will continue to work hard to get there. Until then, I need to find that passionate fire and apply it here… because I know I’ve been slacking. I need to resurrect that Grand Rapids dream, and maybe, just maybe, that’s when everything will click into place.

Sunday Ramblings Vol.4

DanaLeave a comment

*Sunday Ramblings is a weekly post where we share our personal anecdotes and thoughts. These posts won’t necessarily be directly related to In the Rough, but the likelihood is that they will be while creating a transparent look into the business.*

*This is Volume 4*

Here we are again. How is it I continue to miss writing on the other six days of the week?! At least my Sunday posts seem to be sticking. I’ll make sure it stays that way, so whoever is reading this little piece of internet has new fun things to discover.

The last little while has felt like it went by in a flash. It somehow feels like I’ve been over-promising and under-delivering, but that’s not the case at all. I’ve been on top of most things (don’t look over at my couch-turned-laundry-basket of clothes that need to be folded and put away), and I keep thinking of awesome ideas that I want to put into fruition but time is fleeting so my to-do list gets longer. By the way, do you know anyone who wants a decent sized collection of old records? I’ve read countless articles about the merits of to-do lists. Some articles claim that they’re ridiculous and the only thing you get with a to-do list is adding things to said list, while on the other hand these experts claim that a to-do list is the only way people get anything done. It’s really incredibly difficult to figure out which type of person you are without trying. I can hold many things in my brain, too many in fact, but there are some very positive merits to writing things down and being able to cross things off a list as you finish them. I am learning that some things just never get crossed off to-do lists, especially those tasks affiliated with a business. I’m still feeling like I’m in a love-hate relationship with my ever-expanding list but I’m trying to embrace and wrangle it into a loving, nurturing, and helpful tool. Despite this, it’s been a great week. I re-discovered a band I haven’t listened to in far too long (can’t stop listening to this song), I worked a lot, made brownies for my coworkers so we survive the week, and even learned a bit about contract brewing! If only the weather would warm up I’d really be happy! 🙂

Sunday Ramblings Vol.3

DanaLeave a comment

*Sunday Ramblings is a weekly post where we share our personal anecdotes and thoughts. These posts won’t necessarily be directly related to In the Rough, but the likelihood is that they will be while creating a transparent look into the business.*

*This is Volume 3*

 

One of my favourite things to do while out and about is to think about what the people around me are thinking or where they’re going, or about how their day is going. Does anyone else do that? Leave my curiosity to my retail experience, where you’re constantly having to remind yourself that you don’t know what’s going on in the life of someone else – especially when that someone else isn’t particularly respectful or courteous to you during the interaction. Keeping this in mind, I enjoy creating make-believe lives for some people. I remember one such incident, on a subway car in Brooklyn, where I annoyed Scott to no end with my semi-tipsy stories about the other passengers. I gave one couple the story of being on their second or third date (they must’ve seemed awkward); another couple of being married for too long, having nothing more to talk about; and a large, muscular man the story that he was a sensitive ballet dancer, but few people saw beneath his intimidating stature to see his true self. I definitely know how to keep myself entertained!

I like to think that everyone is always having a great day, and where I work it’s quite easy to see how one might think that. We don’t often get customers who take out their frustrations or bad news on us. Normally, it’s the opposite. People are happy, friendly and sprouting compliments and positive inflections on the space and what they find. It makes each day go by quickly and makes going to work a pleasure.
I feel the same way about what I’m doing with In the Rough. I enjoy making what I make and I hope that people can see or read into that, and want to add the things we make to their happy life stories.

 

Sunday Ramblings Vol.2

DanaLeave a comment

*Sunday Ramblings is a weekly post where we share our personal anecdotes and thoughts. These posts won’t necessarily be directly related to In the Rough, but the likelihood is that they will be while creating a transparent look into the business.*

*This is Volume 2*

Let’s not get into the minutiae, I know it’s actually Monday, but really, working all day and having a pj Oscar party (Yikes! One hell of an Hollywood ending, amiright?!) leaves me rambling in the wee, wee hours.

This week was rough. Ha! Get it? Rough, In the Rough, rough… I digress. I got hit with the mother of all colds and could do little else than sleep for an almost record-breaking 48 hours. Coming out the other side of this cold left me lifeless and lacking energy. I felt compelled to continue my quarantine with more tea, more pulp fiction (novels, not the movie – although that would’ve been fine too) and absolutely nothing productive. What do you do? Do I take the time to heal? Do I push through and withstand a couple more days of a foggy brain and red, stuffy nose? I vote for healing, but is that really what’s best? I know this is something entrepreneurs are constantly struggling with, and although I’ve really only dipped my toe in, I know it’s something I’m going to have to figure out… eventually. On the other hand, I am so completely aware that I have things that need to get finalized, or powering through the to-do list on tasks I haven’t started yet, so figuring it out seems trivial and lazy. That’s what tomorrow is for! At least I’ll keep telling myself that, for now.

 

Lessons in making and humility

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I am learning the hard way that when working with natural products like wood and leather you sometimes have to work organically.  You need to seeing or feel where the stock wants to go as opposed to forcing it.  This is a particular lesson I am having a difficult time really coming to grips with.  The core of the problem in this instance is that I think I let early success get to my head. It started when we dropped off our wooden diamonds and got talking to Gareth, the owner of Maker House.  During the discussion it came to our attention that there is a need for well made leather carriers for items such as yoga mats and blankets.  I put together a rough prototype which met with everyone’s approval and I was off.

I saw a new challenge and I found myself at Zelikovitz trying to buy everything.  I settled on two products: A black oiled buffalo leather; and natural veg tan leather that I would dye a nice mahogany using an antiquing paste, a new product for me.  I also picked up some lovely nickel hardware that would complement both colors nicely.  With materials in hand I promptly cut and punched the holes for 6 carriers, 3 of each color. Testing you say?  Small batches you say?  Pssshhhh!

straps

As the buffalo was a pre-dyed and treated leather I started the final assemble with these.  I ran into a few minor issues with the application of the top coat (too many bubbles) and learning to properly set the rivets (needed a hard surface) but otherwise everything went off without a hitch.  I completed the water testing to ensure no color transfer and I dropped them off feeling like a million bucks.

carrier

Little did I know that I was in for a challenge when attempting to complete the remaining tan models.  While the finish looks amazing I rapidly ran into a major issue of surface chemistry between the antiquing paste and the resolene.  Resolene is an acrylic top coat product that I am using to seal in the dye to ensure that there is no colour transfer.  The results were less than satisfactory when it came time to test them for colour transfer when wet.

I have spent the last week conducting small tests and attempting to reseal the 3 carriers.  Regardless of what I do the small tests work flawlessly and yet the already finished product will not adhere properly.  There appears to be some contamination on the 3 carriers that I have been unable to identify or remove.  I have been forced to accept that I just do not know how to correct this.  For now the use of the antiquing paste is going to be put on hold; while the straps have not been deposited in the trash I suspect that is their most likely fate. We are now going with the Fiebing’s oil based dyes which I have more experience with.  The colour we went with is the saddle tan which is a nice light colour though lacks some of the richness of the mahogany antiquing paste.  There have been requests for the tan carriers so I need to get this process up and going.

Even here I have run into issues, though this goes back to my original musings on accepting the nature of the product as opposed to forcing it to your will.  In my mind I saw these straps as a uniform brown, which has been my experience with the oil based dyes.  Whether it is the result of this being a natural product or my method they are coming out with a more organic look. Dana likes it but if it was up to me I would likely keep trying to dye these until they were uniform getting darker and darker every time, eventually ruining yet another carrier. I will defer to Dana as she has the better artistic eye and proceed.  Here is hoping these play nice with the resolene and I can get them into Maker House soon.

currentStrap.jpg

 

Sunday Ramblings Vol.1

DanaLeave a comment

*Sunday Ramblings is going to become a weekly post where we share our personal anecdotes and thoughts. These posts won’t necessarily be directly related to In the Rough, but the likelihood is that they will be while creating a transparent look into the business.*

*This is Volume 1*

 

This weekend the weather was amazing! And by amazing, I most definitely mean amazing for winter. Those who know me know that I love winter about the same amount as I love tomatoes, and that’s less than 5%. The sun was out (Ottawa didn’t really have sun for the first half of February), the weather reached about 8 degrees above freezing, snow was melting, and I was happy. We happened to be running around which let me soak in some of that glorious Vitamin D that I’ve been severely lacking, and thankfully all those good sunshine-y vibes got my creative juices flowing.

I started thinking about where I want to see myself go with my woodworking. So far I haven’t really pushed my knowledge and capabilities, but I’d like to start integrating the diamond silhouette into other things. I sort of want to learn how to do in-laid woodworking. I’d like to eventually start building bigger things. I’m interested in seeing how to pair wood with things like leather to make fun and unexpected objects. Aaannnndddd, this is my problem. This is sort of why I’ve never been able to see a business to fruition before. My dreams are too big for the present. I see where I want to be in two, three, even ten years in the future and get weighted down by not knowing how to start small. As it were, integral aspects were missed and I’m playing catch-up to make sure In the Rough is presented as an actual, real, cohesive business.

I also put finalizing touches on our font, logo, colour palette, and business card design. This was tougher than anticipated, but it’s done and that makes me happy. It’s one more thing I can tick off the business to-do list, making this weekend that much better.

Did you enjoy your weekend too? Tell me about something that stood out about the last few days!