Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Joshua is now making spinning tools


Joshua (our son) has recently began making spinning tools out in the wood shop, his most popular is the 3 in 1 tool sold on our etsy site. I thought I would give a little more back ground on Joshua.
Josh began spinning when he was 13 years old, which is when I also began spinning. I became frustrated with the wheel and put it in the corner for a couple of weeks before trying again. I noticed my spinning seemed to be improving at times. This is when I discovered it wasn't my spinning, Josh was using the wheel when I wasn't looking. I soon was sharing my wheel with him and his spinning was much better then mine.
At some of the spinning meetings other parents were bringing their kids, soon the kids were getting together in a corner and spinning or weaving. Another lady suggested they should form a kids guild so they did, they went to 4-h demos and craft shows where they gave spinning demos. One of the old Spin-Offs has some photos of some of the fiber spun by the kids from Oklahoma.
Joshua liked to spin on a drop spindle because when we went to demos....no one knew what a drop spindle was, they had a faint idea what a spinning wheel was but no idea about drop spindles. Josh eventually after about 2-3 years of spinning moved on to other things....
He has recently discovered making spindles and nostepinnes in his dad's woodshop so now the business is a family affair. Look for Joshua's items in our ThreadsthruTime etsy shop...

Friday, May 14, 2010

Where DID the time go!!??

I am going to try to do better and get this thing caught up. Where to begin, I think I'll go back and then forward a bit.
Back in January of 2009, Dale had a torn rotator cuff and had to have surgery. While he was healing he could not work on his wool pickers or tri-looms, doctors orders. To keep himself occupied he poured over his magazines on wood working and then when the doc said it was ok, he began playing with his wood lathe. He had been playing with it some but really never had the time to play on it a lot. He began making nostepinnes, orifice hooks, drop spindles, and other things to get his arm back in shape. Once the doctor released him he began in ernest making things on the wood lathe and finally went back to making the wool pickers and tri-looms.
Now flash ahead a year and his arm is bothering him again so we have made the decision to stop taking orders on the Tri-Looms and Wool Pickers and concentrate on the smaller items that don't irritate his shoulder. We still have 2 orders for Wool Pickers and 2 for Tri-Looms to get finished and then we are done with them. He is taking his time working on them to keep from aggravating his shoulder. We are also making Turkish spindles and other small items to sell in between working on getting these orders out for the bigger items.
So we are as usual behind on both things.....the spindles are selling well but we are also working on the woolpickers and looms trying to get them finished and out the door. We also have day jobs, Dale at the refinery in Tulsa and me here at the house taking care of emails, orders, critters, the house, and whatever else that falls into my lap. We are extremely busy....... please be patient with us while we get these pickers and looms out the door so we can concentrate on the other items.
Now Joshua, our son, has decided to finally try his hand at making items on the lathe to sell so it has truly become a family business. Joshua makes wrist distaffs, nostepinnes, and his 3 in 1 tool, which is a nostepinne, wpi gauge, and wrist distaff all in one. He is thinking of trying his hand at making spindles so stay tuned...