Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Barefoot at Knott's Merry Farm!


Come check out Knott's Merry Farm!
The red arrow marks the location of our Booth.  We open Thanksgiving Day and will be there until Christmas Eve!

Monday - Thursday the Christmas Crafts Village is free
Friday - Sunday it's included with admission.

Remember Military, Police and Firemen get themselves and 1 guest in free during this time...and there is also a Toys for Tots promotion going on!  


Monday, November 5, 2012

See us at Knott's Christmas Crafts Village!


From November 21st through Christmas Eve, Knott Berry Farm’s 1880s Ghost Town is transformed into Knott’s Christmas Crafts Village.  
This adorable village, invites mall-weary guests to explore one-of-a-kind treasures created by more than 100 artisans in a Victorian holiday wonderland of strolling carolers, musical groups, community choirs and lavish holiday decorations. 
And we'll be one of those great 100 artisans bringing our handmade wares to the holiday fun!  Come on down and support local businesses!! 
Adding to the unique Village atmosphere are live performances of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” and O. Henry’s “A Gift of the Magi” in the Bird Cage Theatre. 
Events

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Civil Service Discounts!

Did you know that the Barefoot Woodworker is a War Veteran?

So, to show our thanks to all of those who serve our country  in various ways we offer this discount year round. (Not just when the sentiment is popular)


  • All Active (and Active Retired) civil servants receive a 5% discount! 
  • Additional 5% for each of the following medals (or their civilian equivalent): 
      Bronze Star • Silver Star • Purple Heart 
  • Additional 10% for: • Medal of Honor (or civilian equivalent) 
 ALL DISCOUNTS ARE CUMULATIVE! 


Who Qualifies: 
Police Officers Military (active and Active Retired)
Firemen
City, State, Federal Officials
Public School Teachers
and anyone else who receives a Govt. Paycheck. . .


Here are some examples of who can qualify:
I've known school teachers cut by gang members (Purple Heart). 
I currently know a Police Officer awarded the Medal of Valor (Civilian Medal of Honor). 
Some other civilian equivalents would be: Humanitarian of the Year, American Red Cross or Woman of the Year, Chamber of Commerce. 

I have a cousin who has been awarded 3 Bronze Stars, 2 Silver Stars, is retired from the U.S. Army and currently working as a State Park Ranger. If he ever comes in I’ll have to pay him to build his project!

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Custom Requirements for a Table and Buffet


The table shown here is made of solid birch. 
There is no plywood or particle board found  here. 
Two removable (grain-matched) leaves were made for this table, allowing it to be either  7, 8 or 9 feet long.
An Interesting Requirement! 
The client required it be sturdy enough to hold two dancing 200lb people on it.  Now that’s custom!  When the customer arrived to pick this piece up, I had put the two leaves in and was sitting in the center of the 9’ table.  
(That’s 180lbs on the weakest point of the table!).


The matching solid birch buffet also had some interesting requirements:
“It needs to be this tall”
(customer held hand parallel to floor and I measured from there).
“It needs to be this long”
(customer held arms outstretched and I measured from there),
If you look closely at the pictures, you’ll see the top is not perfectly flat. 
It was hand-planed.  

Sunday, October 7, 2012

A Watch Box in Progress

This box is seemingly very simple. However to assemble it took 9 clamps, 6 hands, 2 glue bottles and 54 dowels all working together in unison for 15 mins straight.


As you can see from the picture, I had to finish the inside of the box before I could assemble it, though the outside can't be finished until everything else is done. This stage would have come much sooner if the level of detail needed for this was just a little less and it hadn't caused a kickback on the saw resulting in a withdrawal from work for several weeks.


I've also included a close up of one of the interesting joints. This joint is not only very attractive but also very intricate requiring special tooling and exceptional consideration. It's my own modern variant on a Chinese joint, that I know dates back at least 1200 years, but is unknown in Western construction.

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Remember who your friends are

For those of you who have followed my blog you know who BOB is.

He is the guy who comes in the shop and helps out with decades of experience as a math professor and a couple decades beyond that as an all around good helper and handyman.  He is also the guy who gave me my tree to work on my masters project.  He has been a very good friend and one I am indebted to. 


With that said, I'm repaying debts. :)  Jan, Bobs wife isn't getting around as well anymore and needed a ramp on the back of the house. So, I made a materials list, Bob went shopping and I came over the next day.
    
8 hours and 2 pulled hamstrings later: Jan had a new ramp on the back of the house.

She had a new ramp that allows her to get into and out of the house on her own. Giving her back the  freedom she was missing.

After giving Jan back some freedom and crippling myself for three days, do I feel I'm 'even' with Bob?...not on your life! 

Beyond anything and everything Bob has done for me or I have done for him , or we will do for each other. - It doesn't matter.  We are friends and friends help each other, and if you cant rely on your friends to be there for you like this ... maybe you should find better friends. 

Start by Being A Bob.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Heart-Shaped Musical Ring Box - Completed

and finally the reveal!!!




The project: a custom jewelry box to present a custom wedding ring!

Turned and carved out of Musical Grade Fiddleback Maple, hand rubbed with a white pearlesence, mechanically designed and created by me, and hand painted blue (interior) with a custom made glass post to hold the ring.  The Zip a Dee Do Dah music you are hearing in the beginning is the actual unaltered live sound.

Custom design and custom made!

Learn more about the process here: http://barefootwoodworker.blogspot.com/search/label/heart-shaped%20music%20box

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Featured in an Etsy Treasury


It's always nice to get noticed: 

I'M ON A MISSION!!

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Catching up with the Heart Shaped Box

Well, as this was a surprise..we've been careful to keep much of it off of the internet.

The piece is now complete and has been picked up.  So it's time to share!

So I'll go ahead and start adding the pictures now so everyone can see some of the process that went into this amazing piece.

The cylinders were turned on the lathe into heart shapes and then split back open.  Then they were first roughly carved out to remove more material before being carved smooth by hand.

The base of this is where all the mechanical magic happened. Lots of work went into that very small space. ..and I won't be showing all of that publicly. But you can see it getting dry rubbed with a pearlescent powder before it gets a finish.   More to follow!

 


Monday, August 6, 2012

New Items on Etsy

Click below to see some of the new things we've added to our Etsy shop.

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Winning at the OC Fair Woodworking competition!

As we told you recently, The Barefoot Woodworker (Randy Mason) entered one of the beautiful Manzanita Jewelry Boxes.   Now for those who aren't local and part of the woodworking community, the woodworking competition is actually quite a prestigious one.  They open it up to everyone in the state of California and it has grown to be something that draws some of the best woodworkers to compete.  Barefoot was honored to be juried into the competition this year for his first attempt at an entry.


And we are so excited to report that, this past Thursday, this jewelry box was awarded a 2nd place Industry Award from Woodworker West magazine.

Congratulations to our very own Barefoot Woodworker on his well deserved win at the Orange County Fair.  We loved this jewelry box and we're ecstatic to hear that so many others did too!




A note from the winner himself: "While this compeitition made me very nervous (largest I've ever entered), and the results made me proud, I would say the biggest prize I won was being able to talk with the judges and learn from them their take on my work.  Hopefully next year I'll be able to learn from it and improve upon it. Fingers crossed" - Barefoot

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Billy is Wack

When Billy came walking through my door, askin me to make parts for his Wack little Pop-ups, I really didn't know what to say.  If you've ever looked at my blog or my website, it's really not the kind of work I'm set up for.  But I thought they were cool and so helped him out and referred him to a couple of places (Etsy, Custommade, etc) where he met others that could actually better meet his needs.

That was about a month ago, and today I just received my very own Lil' Frankie Stein.  Again, not my building style, but well made and with a high attention to detail.  This guy is keeping production low in order to keep quality high.  I think I may just become a collector!  Check him out: http://www.etsy.com/shop/BillyWackProductions?ref=seller_info 

hmmm...Got to get this guy to start doing my marketing...

PS: For those of you that are wondering; no, this is not a paid endorsement.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Please Vote for us!


Vote to Help Your Favorite Local Businesses Win Big

Your votes help decide who receives the next $5,000 Intuit Hiring Grant.

Voting is easy, and fast.
Just share a few brief thoughts about why you love a local business. Nominate a favorite business yourself if you don't find it on the list. Only one vote per business, but you can vote for as many businesses as you like.

The more votes a business gets, the more chances it has to win the $5,000.

Your words matter! So make your opinion known, and vote to help out a deserving local business in your community!


Click here to "Love OUR Local Business"

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Islands at 2012 The Orange County Fair

This wonderful heart-shaped jewelry box was accepted into the Woodworking competition at the Orange County Fair this year (here in Southern California).

The OC Fair has a very prestigious reputation, so we are honored that this piece made it through the pre-jury and is currently on display.


If you are here in So Cal, please be sure to stop by the woodworking building to see Barefoot's entry.  It's easy to find right when you first walk in.

You'll also see a voting box to the right ...please take a minute to cast a vote for it to win a sort of People's Choice Award!



Thursday, July 5, 2012

The Other Side to the Business


We mostly build custom furniture.  Often that is big heavy wood items.  It means the shop is full of heavy dirty machinery.  We'll have colleagues and vendors stop by and generally they are male.  It's not uncommon for the Barefoot Woodworker to call the shop a "Man Cave".  So as the female half of the business, it's sometimes a bit difficult to find my place in the testosterone haze.  






But recently I found a few crafty projects I wanted done.  We discussed the idea of expanding what we offer at the local craft fairs.  I figured he could make me a few things and I'd stick to taking the pictures and working on selling them.  But when I approached Barefoot with the idea, he saw an opportunity for me to come in and get some practice on the machines.  He also saw an opportunity for him to get even and take some pictures of me working in the shop.  So in the interest of fairness (which is more because he insisted) here are a few shots of me working on a couple sets of the Mushroom Bowling pins.  Available soon!

Friday, June 29, 2012

Win Big with the Bloggers Birthday Bash

Summer Bloggers Birthday Bash Banner


The Barefoot Woodworker has joined up with some great bloggers to offer you wonderful prizes! 

We've got lots of great prizes up for grabs, including a grand prize of $300 PayPal cash!

Yes, that's 3 BIG ONES to one lucky reader! What would you do with an extra $300 in your pocket?
Pay a bill or two, buy a few month's worth of gas, have a romantic night out with your spouse. go on a shopping spree or put it in savings.
Whatever you choose to do with it is up to you, but you have to win it first!

Oh, and what about the other $2000 in prizes we have to offer? Don't forget about those!

Please note that only the grand prize is open worldwide. All other prize packages are only available to U.S. entrants.

What else do we have in store for you? Well, let's see...

Update on the Heart Shaped Music Box

Remember that really great project we are working on: Heart Shaped Music Box ...
Well I've been plugging away on it and finally have some time to give a small update here.

After working on getting the shape on the lathe with tools, there's a need to get it nice and smooth.  The easiest way it to leave it on the lathe and use sandpaper.

I'll tell you though, that sandpaper gets pretty hot in your hands.  So it's a lot faster sanding this way, but it means you have to stop and blow on your fingers a lot!    You may also notice I was able to make another smaller heart at the base of the larger one.  It just seemed like it was worth a shot instead of losing so much of that beautiful figured maple.  Of the 4 cylinders I was able to make 3 small hearts - the forth having shattered.



Here it is split. 
You'll see the paper that was put between makes a nice clean place for the glue to split back open without losing any of the wood.  And we are starting to see that heart shape.  


Saturday, June 23, 2012

Win a $20 CPK Gift Card

First we'd like to congratulate our winner of the Tic Tac Toe game!

But we are ready to go on our next contest.  This will be a short one so hurry and get on board!


a Rafflecopter giveaway






While you are running around the internet to win our cool handmade swag, please take a moment to support small businesses at www.MissionSmallBusiness.com.  Each vote adds $5 to the grant pool so more small businesses can get some much needed funds.  And we'd really appreciate a vote for us (CUSTOM CLASSICS in Anaheim, CA) while you are at it!  Thanks from the Barefoot Woodworker.

Monday, June 18, 2012

Dog Bed - I stand behind (or on) the strength of my work


The dog beds are finished.
After the last step we showed of using square pegs in round holes, we put a finish on them.
They are looking really good and have a rich tone to the color.And you'll notice I stand behind their strength. Well, more like I stand ON in this case!


  • The dog beds are finished.  
After the last step we showed of using square pegs in round holes, we put a finish on them.  
They are looking really good and have a rich tone to the color.

And you'll notice I stand behind their strength.  Well, more like I stand ON in this case!






































Thursday, June 14, 2012

Square Pegs into Round Holes


Nature VS. nurture?....That's the time old question isn't it? Well I believe BOTH...but not in the traditional manor.

I believe that a normal healthy mind is capable of ALL things at conception....natures bounty if you will.
Then we nurture it into oblivion! The only thing that stops this is the individuals personal desires.

Case in point:
When I was in preschool, at about 4yrs old, I was told it wasn't possible to put the square peg in the round hole in that little toy with all the shapes (shape sorter?) - I STRONGLY DISAGREED - I got in trouble with the teacher.... In those days they were made of wood LOL (yeah I'm old....so are most are you so give me a break LOL).  Then at recess they gave me the shape sorter...and a small ball peen hammer (metal) I spent all recess diligently working with small taps and put the square peg into the round hole. I was VERY proud of myself!  I had proven my point!  Again, I got into trouble....with the teacher, principal and MOM (she had to pay for it LOL).

I don't believe anything is impossible. -I- may not be able to do it. -You- may not be able to do it., but somewhere at some point in time someone was able, can now  or will be able to do it simple because someone said "YOU CAN'T".

Today almost 40yrs later I've
 almost perfected putting square pegs into round holes as represented in my furniture produced. My mother seemed disappointed when I told her about it yrs ago....I guess my nature was stronger than my surrounding nurture. 


Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Win a Prize!

Enter to win this adorable handmade Tic Tac Toe game! 
Choice of 1 dark (walnut) or light (beech) wood.
and yes I made it!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

While you are running around the internet to win our cool handmade swag, please take a moment to support small businesses at www.MissionSmallBusiness.com.  Each vote adds $5 to the grant pool so more small businesses can get some much needed funds.  And we'd really appreciate a vote for us (CUSTOM CLASSICS in Anaheim, CA) while you are at it!  Thanks from the Barefoot Woodworker.

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Mission Small Business


You do it all to drive your business forward. Chase and LivingSocial want to help fuel that drive by awarding up to 12 individual grants of $250,000 to 12 small businesses. Submit your Mission: Small Business℠ application today! 

If you believe your small business is eligible and wish to apply for a Grant, you must do the following:
visit the Program Registration site at www.missionsmallbusiness.com 
complete the Application and submit your Application;
obtain at least 250 Votes; and
be deemed eligible by the Sponsors.  

Then come back here and list your business in the comments below so we can vote for you too! 
We ask that you consider voting for others in the comments list. . and come back to see more who have voted for you!

Don't have a business but want to help! 
Vote for your favorite small businesses in your community. Consumers may vote an unlimited number of times but only once for each small business. Each business needs at least 250 votes to be considered for a $250,000 grant. Eligible small business applicants will then be judged by a panel of business experts. 


This grant is an amazing opportunity.
We are trying to garner votes for this endeavor.  This grant would allow us to complete ambitious projects that achieve three major goals: growth of our business, continued charitable presence in our local community, and becoming a woodworking educational presence (starting apprenticeship programs) in the online and local community. This would change our lives and the lives of others as well.    

Please consider voting for us.  Custom Classics in Anaheim, CA. 




Don't forget to put your business in the comments so we (and others) can vote for you!

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Support Small Business

Each vote adds $5 to the grant pool so more people can get grants!  Help us and help small businesses!

What I'm Working On...

Along with the intriguing heart shaped jewelry box, I've got a few other projects in progress in the shop.

I had a request for 2 dog beds.  Here's the dog bed she saw that made her ask for 2 for her larger, heavier dogs.








 But she wanted a style more in keeping with her current bedroom furniture.
Something more like this:


Here are some shots of the progress made on this so far....

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