New Year's Eve 2022 in the shop

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I have been so busy trying to keep Etsy shop stocked, that I have neglected this blog. So I think I will start writing 'day in the shop' posts detailing what I am working on from day to day. Today, was a busy day. I was at the Oregon coast with the family, but headed back to the Willamette Valley (AKA Hillsboro), because I had two Etsy orders to ship via USPS. Except, despite the pickup notification, USPS did not pick up the packages! Ugh. =(

I did get a lot done though. I finished up sanding and finishing two signs for people I work with, Ankit and An.
An, because her name is so short, got a sign face with Pink Ivory. Pink Ivory has an interesting history, where at one time only members of the royal Zulu family were allowed to posses it. Non royals that possessed it, are rumored to be punished by death. Pink Ivory is so precious and dense, that sometimes it used to make jewelry. The only other time I used Pink Ivory, was to make a sign or 'name tag' for someone else with a short name, JR. Well, that is the the initials he went by. In a troubling true story, after he left the company I worked with, he was walking to his new job for his first day of work, when a crazy person ran accross the street and slugged him while he was talking on his phone. He was carrying his sign and in the scuffle, his sign was broken. He, thankfully, was not injured seriously. Both An and Ankit's signs were cut at my mini shop in Depoe Bay, Oregon.

I also cut and finished the following three pieces
All of these were from patterns of French artist Jean-Bernard Germe's book, 'Making Wooden People & Pets with personality'. You can visit his Etsy store at 2virgule5d to purchase his book, or to buy his creations.

I am really bummed USPS did not pick up my outbound packages today, as I always pride myself on shipping as soon as possible. I could be at the coast with the rest of my family. Are my priorities messed up? Probably, but it is tough to open a new shop and get everything operating smoothly, and on-time shipping is an important part of that.

I almost forgot, I also finished and listed a new cross.
The crosses I cut are very detailed, and at least in one case, don't always end in success (more on that later). I like how this one turned out, and figured out a new trick to get the very some loops on the ends of curves to look better, by using a spiral blade to smooth things out. Cutting with a regular blade is like flying an airplane, you go in one direction mainly but you can make turns, but with a spiral blade, you can move in any direction and cut. For someone who has cut for ten plus years without using a spiral blade, it is a bit mind boggling to pick up. But, it is very usefull in certain circumstances. There are some scrollsawers that use it primarily

Tomorrow? I will renew another Etsy listing that sold out, (pretty much all of my listings sell out when ordered because I haven't had time to make more than one of most of them). I think I have ten listings sold out currently, and a few I might not relist. So much work to do, and a whole new year beginning tomorrow!

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