Everything you've ever wanted to know about running a craft business...

Sin City Woodworkers Follow the trail of sawdust to our next meeting... Sin City Woodworkers, a Vegas valley social and networking group committed to serious (and not so serious!) woodworking discussions, meet on the third Wednesday of each month to share everything from techniques and project ideas to information about local suppliers and much more. Our next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, June 19 at 7:00, and we’re in for a treat at this month’s meeting! Several members have asked for it, so Dave Clark will be sharing his business acumen and lead an in-depth discussion about selling wooden wares on the craft show circuit.  It’s pretty clear that all of us have a love of working with wood, but actually running a successful crafting business is a whole different ballgame. How can we sell our work? Ever wonder about getting a business license? Getting into a juried show? Setting up a craft booth? Advertising? Deciding what to make, and what will sell best? Dave will share his best tips and tricks, and give us a true picture of what it’s like to run a craft business.  Raised and schooled in Fresno, California, Dave moved to LV in '79 for a teaching position. (He also says that he learned how to wear socks when in public after leaving his home town.) He fell into woodworking as a hobby, after renovating a couple of houses. His wife never had a shortage of ideas for remodeling their house, and Dave needed something to do with his tools. Initially he was trying to find a way to use his scrap wood, which was crowding shop floor space and shelves. So after he retired, Dave started building wooden items for sale.  He sells at 5 or 6 art/craft shows annually, mostly for fun and says it’s something to occupy his time when he can't fish.  Dave says he doesn't really need the extra income from craft sales because he finally convinced his wife to get a third full-time job…. but truth be told, he has a great mind for business - not just for the manufacturing end of it, but for the business side, too.  Feel free to bring your questions for Dave, he’s more than willing to share his tips and expertise. We'll have a Show and Tell at this meeting, so if you've made something interesting lately, please feel free to bring it to the meeting and share it with the group.  This meeting will be held at Studio: Wood It Is!, 2267 West Gowan, unit 106 in North Las Vegas. As always, the public is welcome to attend the meeting, so members - please feel free to bring a guest along. But remember that there are a limited number of chairs in the woodshop. Attendees might want to bring a folding chair if they wish to sit during the meeting. If you have questions or need directions, call the studio at 702-631-1870.

This meeting will be held at Studio: Wood It Is!, 2267 West Gowan, unit 106 in North Las Vegas. As always, the public is welcome to attend the meeting, so members - please feel free to bring a guest along. But remember that there are a limited number of chairs in the woodshop. Attendees might want to bring a folding chair if they wish to sit during the meeting. If you have questions or need directions, call the studio at 631-1870.   Our mailing address is: 2267 W. Gowan, Suite 106, North Las Vegas, NV 89032

How can CBD help woodworkers? Come to our next meeting....

Sin City Woodworkers Follow the trail of sawdust to our next meeting... Sin City Woodworkers, a Vegas valley social and networking group committed to serious (and not so serious!) woodworking discussions, meet on the third Wednesday of each month to share everything from techniques and ideas to information about local suppliers and much more. Our next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, May 15, at 7:00, when Efrain Madrigal will discuss how using CBD products can benefit woodworkers and help ease the variety of health issues we experience, including arthritis, sore backs and muscles, breathing issues and more. We’ll start off with Efrain giving us a brief overview of what CBD is, how it works in the body and how to use it to treat physical and psychological conditions. He’ll discuss some methods available to medicate with CBD, and we’ll follow up his presentation with a Q & A session. If you’ve wondered how CBD products can help you, bring some questions that you have. Finally,  Efrain will recommend some products that he knows to be of high quality, and give some guidance for making wise purchases for your health needs.  Efrain has worked for a cannabis dispensary for almost two years, consulting with both medical and recreational consumers. He has seen how cannabis and specifically CBD can help improve the lives of many people by treating simple aches and pains to more serious chronic diseases.  But there is a lot of misinformation out there, and if you don’t know what to look for, it’s easy to buy the wrong products, or use ineffective dosages.  We’ll also be collecting dues this month - mostly because I forgot to collect them last month! Springtime is our annual dues-collection season, where $20 gets you some amazing opportunities! Remember -  dues are always completely voluntary - but help our group fund some of our woodworking projects throughout the year.  The best part is - all monies left over at the end of the year are given back to dues-paying members during our annual holiday party held in December.  There are two ways to get your name into the drawings - by being a dues-paying member, or by being the guest speaker/demonstrator at one of our monthly meetings.  (Last year, we gave back close to $700 in prizes for both the woodworking competition as well as the raffle drawings!) So please - consider joining our ranks by becoming a member!

This meeting will be held at Studio: Wood It Is!, 2267 West Gowan, unit 106 in North Las Vegas. As always, the public is welcome to attend the meeting, so members - please feel free to bring a guest along. But remember that there are a limited number of chairs in the woodshop. Attendees might want to bring a folding chair if they wish to sit during the meeting. If you have questions or need directions, call the studio at 631-1870.

Our April Meeting Announcement...

Sin City Woodworkers Follow the trail of sawdust to our next meeting... Sin City Woodworkers, a Vegas valley social and networking group committed to serious (and not so serious!) woodworking discussions, meet on the third Wednesday of each month to share everything from techniques and ideas to information about local suppliers and much more.  This month’s meeting will be held on Wednesday, April 17 at 7:00, when Dennis Patchett will share a project that he’s been passionate about lately - making wig stands for cancer patients.  Anyone who knows Dennis agrees that he’s a selfless woodworker - spending hours teaching everyone from boy scouts to wood carvers, generously sharing his amazing talents. He’s recently gotten involved with something new - making wig stands for people who’ve lost their hair, due to their cancer treatment. As we all know too well - cancer affects all of us - each year, 1.7 million people will be diagnosed with it, and and nearly 600,000 don’t make it. They face daily struggles - from fighting the disease to negotiating our complicated medical system. Dennis has discovered a way that woodworkers can actually make a contribution to their fight - by making wig stands for people who have other things to worry about. Dennis will bring one of his carved and turned stands, and suggested a challenge for our group - we’ll discuss making this our Christmas Challenge - making unique wig stands, with the ultimate goal of donating them to people in need.  Curious?  Check out this interesting article about a Canadian woodturners group making these stands:  https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/a-real-community-effort-ottawa-woodturners-make-177-wig-stands-for-cancer-patients We’re in the second month of dues collection for our 2019 season, and like every year - dues are completely voluntary. We’ll never twist your arm for the $20 it takes to call yourself a bona fide Sin City Woodworker, but it sure helps us defray the costs of running our group year round. (BTW - our MeetUp membership just increased!) And the best part - any monies left over go right back into the pockets of our members at Christmastime, so please consider joining us this year. Feel free to bring a project to present at Show and Tell, and as always - you’re welcome to bring a friend!  This meeting will be held at Studio: Wood It Is!, 2267 West Gowan, unit 106 in North Las Vegas. As always, the public is welcome to attend the meeting, but remember - there are a limited number of chairs in the woodshop. Attendees might want to bring a folding chair if they wish to sit during the meeting. If you have questions or need directions, call the studio at 702-631-1870.

Interested in CNCs?

Sin City Woodworkers Follow the trail of sawdust to our next meeting... Been thinking about CNCs but didn’t know where to start?   Wait - if you don’t know what CNC stands for - start here. Sin City Woodworkers, a Vegas valley social and networking group committed to serious (and not so serious!) woodworking discussions, meet on the third Wednesday of each month to share everything from techniques and project ideas to information about local suppliers and much more. Our next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, March 20 at 7:00, and we’re in for a treat!  Jeff Sher will be leading our meeting this month, and bringing his Shaper Origin  handheld CNC to demo and discuss. As Jeff explained - he did some research and was sold on the Shaper Origin, with its unique advantages of allowing mobile CNC cutting and more.  As Jeff explains - despite some limitations as all tools have, this router has added almost unlimited design possibilities to his woodworking. He’ll discuss his woodworking background and what led up to his CNC research. He’ll also share the story of finding the Origin and how he intends on using it with future projects.  Finally, he’ll show how designs get implemented and used with the tools. We’ll also be starting a annual Spring dues drive, where your $20 donation to the group - which is completely voluntary - goes a long way in funding our woodworking endeavors, such as our MeetUp membership and various charitable donations throughout the year. (As well as allowing us to throw a heckuva year end party in December.) So - please consider throwing a Jackson our way and joining the official ranks of Sin City Woodworkers. It’s the best $20 you’ll spend for your woodworking this year!  Finally - we haven't done a Show and Tell in a while, so if you've made something cool in the last few months, please bring it to the meeting and share it with our group! As always, this meeting will be held at Studio: Wood It Is!, 2267 West Gowan, unit 106 in North Las Vegas.  The public is welcome to attend the meeting, so members - please feel free to bring a guest along. But remember that there are a limited number of chairs in the woodshop. Attendees might want to bring a folding chair if they wish to sit during the meeting.  If you have questions or need directions, call the studio at 702-631-1870.

Some great pics of our last meeting...

There was such a huge BUZZ about last week's meeting on fractal burning that I just had to post a few photos. Everyone pretty much agreed that John's turned lamp segment was the winner of the night, so here's a video of some of the burning of it.... it was done very safely, I might add! 

And here are some detailed shots of the effects the burning produced. 

(John's shop looks very clean and orderly, I might add!)

If anyone's interested in trying to build this burner - please be careful! It's quite dangerous, but our two presenters built a very safe version for burning wood.... here's a link to the one they built.  

Click here.

 Be safe and smart!

Burn, Baby, Burn....

Congratulations are in order - we’re celebrating our ten year anniversary this month! It’s hard to believe we’ve been around that long, and frankly, our meetings just keep getting better and more interesting.  We have a terrific presentation planned this month, so join us on Wednesday, February 20, at 7:00 for a night of sparks and flames!  Sin City Woodworkers, a Vegas valley social and networking group committed to serious (and not so serious!) woodworking discussions, meet on the third Wednesday of each month to share everything from techniques and ideas to information about local suppliers and much more. Our next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, February 20, at 7:00 and we’re in for a treat this month - co-presenters Emily Davis and Maciek Jezierski (call him Mac!) will share what they’ve learned about fractal burning on wood.  Curious?  Fractal wood burning is a process of applying an electrically conductive solution on wood and then applying high voltage electricity through a transformer using two probes. When this electricity is applied, it burns in the wood from one probe to the other. The figures that are created are commonly called Lichtenberg figures or fractal burns. The results are unpredictable, the technique is often uncontrollable, but the results are amazing! Emily and Mac learned much of what they know by following DoubleReno on his website:  http://www.fractalburn.com.  (You can follow him here: https://www.facebook.com/FractalBurn/) They built their fractal burner using some of his safer methods, and will share what they’ve learned with our group.   Here’s a sample of what they will be doing...  Emily and Mac will also be bringing some various woods to experiment on, but suggested that members are welcome to bring in a piece of wood to burn.  This technique will create some smoke, so we’ll probably have to have the garage door open… so dress warmly! It’s scheduled to snow on Wednesday! Anyone looking for carving woods? Utah wood dealer Jim Grace will be heading back to Las Vegas with a trailer fill of wood, and will be selling it at Wood It Is on Saturday, March 2 at 10:00 AM.  Jim is planning on bringing 4/4, 8/4 and 10/4 cherry, walnut, ash, butternut, white oak, eastern red cedar and hard maple.  Some of the slabs will be with natural edge.  He’ll also bring a large selection of basswood and butternut in sizes from 1" to 4" thick… so carvers - start planning your next work of art!  As always, this meeting will be held at Studio: Wood It Is!, 2267 West Gowan, unit 106 in North Las Vegas. The public is welcome to attend the meeting, so members - please feel free to bring a guest along. But remember that there are a limited number of chairs in the woodshop. Attendees might want to bring a folding chair if they wish to sit during the meeting. If you have questions or need directions, call the studio at 702-631-1870.

Sin City Woodworkers January Meeting Announcement

Sin City Woodworkers, a Vegas valley social and networking group committed to serious (and not so serious!) woodworking discussions, meet on the third Wednesday of each month to share everything from techniques and ideas to information about local suppliers and much more. 

Our next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, January 15 at 7:00, and this meeting will feature Steve Coffey, who will be discussing his woodworking collaboration with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints curators to help restore and build reproduction  furniture in the historical village of Nauvoo, Illinois.

As the story goes …. the population of the city of Nauvoo, Illinois in 1839-1846 was second largest in the state, almost as large as that of Chicago. However, in 1844 when Joseph Smith and his brother were killed by the mob, the vast majority of the residents moved west and settled Utah and Salt Lake City. (You can check things out at: historicnauvoo.net)

Since the 1960’s, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) has been restoring the Nauvoo historic district, a few additional buildings and homes at a time. One of the homes they are currently working on to restore is the home of William Weeks, who was the architect for the Nauvoo temple. Steve built a reproduction of the 1800’s architect’s desk for display in this home  (shown below)  and is working on several other projects, such as a bed, a settee, and some parlor or tea tables. Steve’s hope is that some in our group might want to also participate in this project and build a piece to be displayed in these historic homes.

Church curators are consulting with woodworkers, since they don’t know much about early American furniture… it’s a symbiotic relationship - Steve helps them connect with woodworking, and building the pieces have so helping with the research as well as building the furniture has helped him to connect even closer to the people and times almost 200 years ago. Oh - an by the way -  its pretty cool that something that Steve has made will be on display for the next 100+ years too!  

BTW - Steve’s not just a furniture maker - his turned wares were the winner of the Christmas Ornament contest, and his body of woodworking ranges from small to large. 

We’ll have a Show and Tell at our meeting, so if you’ve made something cool, or gotten a great tool for Christmas - bring it by and share it with the group!

This meeting will be held at Studio: Wood It Is!, 2267 West Gowan, unit 106 in North Las Vegas. As always, the public is welcome to attend the meeting, so members - please feel free to bring a guest along. But remember that there are a limited number of chairs in the woodshop. Attendees might want to bring a folding chair if they wish to sit during the meeting. If you have questions or need directions, call the studio at 631-1870.