Never too Late

For those who love and long to be loved it is never late. In fact it is never too late for anything in life. New hobby, more education, friendship, love, life. Hope for it all. With the pretty nice and yet unusual weather we have been having it gives us hope to spring forward with so many new / old activities.

The studio has been giving birth to some awesome pieces of late. If you have been following us on facebook or on our Etsy site you will have seen some of what has taken place of recent. We have a total of 45 pieces listed in our Etsy store and that will still be growing. I would never have believed that we would have pieces being offered America wide. (No we are not yet worldwide). Just about everything that gets on our Etsy shelves ends up on facebook also but we do realize that not all of you get to travel to all these places. After all I will admit who has all that much time on their hands.

Some of the new studio pieces are of past inspired shapes while others are new to the table. Hope that you like them all or maybe you might favor one over another for some reason. We want to hear back from you so drop us an email or comment please.

Since I am literally a day ahead of my blog schedule I am going to work on the Studio Gallery so don't forget to stop over there and visit. No it's not too late for a Valentine's Day (Feb 14th) or a Friend's Day (Feb 11th) gift. See us at the market on Saturday, at OASIS Art Gallery, C'Ville Arts, Etsy or just plain email us. I know that we have the right wood lover gift for you.

Until next we meet...     

Reflections in the Wood

So it is New Year's Eve and what else does anyone do but reflect on the past year. I can barely remember yesterday so a full year is certainly a challenge. Maybe this just calls for leaves.

• Opened up The WoodArt Studio facebook page. Don't forget to stop by there from time to time, give us a like, become a fan and stay up to the moment on some of our daily turns.
• Began The WoodArt Studio website/blog here in February. Our goal was to post on a weekly basis and I think that we did pretty well and only missed maybe one or two weeks. Our future will hold more exciting news from the studio, inside and out along with some of the happenings in and around the A-frame and possibly a guest blogger or two. We cherish your input on what you would like to see crop up here so please comment and email us. In addition we want our following to grow here so please share with your friends our blog site.
• We attended 99 out of 102 scheduled Farmers Markets in downtown Harrisonburg and organized the first ever unofficial Bonus Christmas Eve Market held in the Turner Pavilion. In my opinion and those of several of my fellow vendors that participated with us it seemed to have been a success and one that will hopefully continue in the future.
• We continue to show at OASIS Fine Art & Craft gallery and expand the gallery market by adding our pieces to C'Ville Arts in downtown historic Charlottesville. We hope to grow with a couple more galleries in Virginia so if you know of a gallery that might be interested in Steve's work please dash us an email with their information.
• We started, after much hesitation (actually several years but that is a whole other blog post), our own store front on Etsy.com. Yes I call it a store front because isn't that just what it is. Inventory needs to be dusted, re-described, prettied up as one might say. We feel that it is very bare walled and that our shelves are light at the moment but it is one of our 2012 goals to fill those blanks with much of the pieces that emerge from the studio.
• The other part of living was spent painting the living room and kitchen, cutting and hauling wood for the woodstoves, mowing the grass, tending the garden, visiting with family and friends, hiking in the forest and overall enjoying life in Virginia.
  
  

  Happy New Year until next we meet ...

  
  
  
  

The Inbetween

Good morning to you in the haphazardness of the season. With so much of the pre holiday season to prepare for I did forget to physically sit and type my Thanksgiving wishes to you all. You were all in our hearts and minds and are truly blessed for having you read, admire, touch and purchase so many pieces from The WoodArt Studio. Without you we would not have gotten as far as we have so a huge THANK YOU! 

Remember to keep your stress levels down this time of year and enjoy all that is given to you and do forgive me if I miss a post or two. We are here to fill your holiday needs with many gifts of wood. You can find us daily at OASIS Art & Craft Gallery, C’Ville Arts, Etsy.com and via our site here. We will also be at the following:

November 30: 2^nd Annual JMU Artisans Holiday Bazaar in Warren Hall between 11am and 5pm.     

December 3: Harrisonburg Farmers Market 9am – 12pm.

December 4: C’Ville Arts Artist Steve on the floor.

December 10: Harrisonburg Farmers Market 9am – 12pm.

December 17: Harrisonburg Farmers Market 9am – 12pm.

December 24: Bonus Harrisonburg Farmers Market 9am – 12pm.

Wishing you at this time an enjoyable, stress free season.

Until next we meet…

Life Busy

I quite often find it interesting to see the cycles of life. From the large picture or one’s entire life down to the smallest of day to day issues. Yes I could go smaller down to the minute but we need to keep the blog short and sweet. After all who wants to hear about our minute by minute daily ups and downs? That is one of the reasons we don’t use twitter. Who can guarantee a signal when one is out in the woods or would I really want to disturb the serenity of the moment anyway?

The early part of this week was so absolutely beautiful weather wise that we just had to get outside and cut and haul some wood. While Steve does the large chunks I deal with the kindling type pieces. It gets hard this time of year because we are hauling wood in to burn so that the studio stays nice and warm with the VT casting stove but what do we do when we find that wonderful log that Steve knows he can get a nice bowl from. Well the answer is simple enough. The bowl or bud vase, new turned ornament or great cooking utensil will win out every time. Most often we will be able to find enough wood to burn but oh the precious pieces that just call out to be turned can sometimes be rare. Beauty is in the eye of the wood not just the beholder.

#463 Walnut & Osage
Orange Ornament Sold

Now later on in the week it is turning a bit chillier along with some light rain. So first we are happy that we cut and hauled and second we are now even happier to be doing inside work. Steve is in the studio and I have been busy adding to the Etsy site. We now have a total of 15 pieces up and showing, most of which are the holiday ornaments. Some you may never have seen via our blog so be sure to drop in there as the door is open 24/7.

Ornaments are how Steve got started with woodturning and I am pleased to be the proud owner of one of his firsts. It is a simple spiral from a piece of padouk, very similar to our Spiral Canary Wood one. I chose the spiral design because it had reminded me of the crystal icicles that use to hang on the tree when I was younger. Now any size, shape, design and wood type will emerge from the studio and hopefully, without much deciding difficulty, into your home where it too will become a cherished heirloom. We currently have 29 unique, one of a kind ornaments that you can find with us at the Harrisonburg Farmers Market, at C’Ville Arts Gallery, OASIS Art & Craft Gallery, The WoodArt Studio on Etsy, or via this blog.

Until next we meet....

Etsy, The Next Step

It was a busy week to say the least. Where does the time end up, especially if there really is no such thing as time. Ok maybe in music there is that 4/4 thing happening, but that would be another blog.

We have had such little rain here added to the fact that we forget to go out and water so most of the tomatoes are nearly gone. Oh yes the birds and other creatures of Mt. Solon are enjoying some of them and why they have to eat also so why not our tomatoes. Did manage to pick and freeze 5 bags the other day. Hope that the potatoes are still well in the ground and will try to dig some of those this weekend.

There were three market days in Harrisonburg and an OASIS Art Gallery open house with some of the tastiest nibble food that one could try. Good food and good people all in one evening. We got to see the Bust’in Outta Here! Bra Art display. Such people with so much inspiration and most proceeds going towards a worthy cause, Relay for Life. We also came home more inspired and full of gratitude for the life around us here in the valley.

And so with this inspiration fresh in our minds we took another leap of faith and are having a soft opening to our first Etsy shop, The WoodArt Studio. Etsy was one of those sites that we had looked at several times during the thinking stages of a woodturning business but just never had put it into production till now. There is much to do with it and so like a tree it will be a slow growth, with many rings added throughout the years. Water, feed and nurture us as we grow another branch on our tree.