Before and After

We are often asked to custom make a certain mix of colors in the dymondwoods. I have to explain to them we do not make up those woods, we buy them already mixed and glued up. The woods come to us pre-dyed and pre-glued sometimes the colors are not as dark or light as the previous colorway. We  as spinners should understand this....we know to order enough of the same color yarn or fiber to finish a project. So sometimes a spindle of the same wood may be a slightly different shade from one block of wood to another.
 I thought it would be interesting to show you some before and after photos of the woods and the spindles made from them.

(If you click on the photos you will get a larger version so you can see up close.)

The smaller blocks with the oval holes are the spindle arms or whorls that have been pre-drilled but not yet cut out. Each tiny block with make the small arms, and the large arms for a complete set. They will be cut apart, sanded, buffed, and polished. We will then turn a shaft that also has to be sanded, buffed, and polished before completing the spindle.

Spindle alert: I will be listing several tiny and medium dymondwood spindle some time tomorrow. Each spindle gets 5 photos each....I then have to edit the photos for clarity....before listing them. This means if I list 10 spindles, I have to take 50 photos, which all have to be edited and then positioned in the folder so I can get them listed.....

We do have a few new colors and a few old colors not seen in awhile......we are working on them now.

Thanks for all your support.......

Hello! Is any one out there......

I laugh! ROFL!!! I am so funny!

Anyway.............I will be listing some really light medium spindles made of recycled walnut and pecan here is a couple of hours. These are the ones made of the trees felled in the ice storm and wind storms that blew through here a few years ago.......they live on as Turkish spindles. The weight on these beauties is 0.8 ounces.

I will also be listing 8 dymondwood medium spindles in various weights........ so stay tuned .......

Wholesale and bulk discounts!!??

I get this question all the time, " Do you do wholesale or bulk order!?"

Unfortunately, NO! Not because we don't want to but because, we just do not have the inventory on hand to do it.

Let me try to break it down this way......... Dale still has a day job and works 8 hours a day....not counting the 20 minutes to and from work each day. He comes home and takes a quick 45 minute nap...... We then eat supper...were from the South ya'll we eat supper. Around 6ish he then goes out to the woodshop and works for 2-3 hours a night.........he then comes in and we take care of packaging and getting labels put on items that need to be sent out.  Depending on the day it can take from 30 minutes to 2 hours.....A shower and then he lounges/naps in front of the TV until about 11:30 or 12:00 when he retires to bed.....gets up and does it all over again.

It takes at least a week (7 days) for him to make 10 - 20 spindles......if he doesn't have to stop to do something around the house...you know husband chores. We do not have (spindle and looms) inventory except for what you see in the etsy store. Dale is a hard person to work for....I've tried, Joshua has tried, and other people have tried. If it isn't up to his standard it doesn't get put up for sale.... period! Joshua, has started making his own stuff but if Dale say nope it isn't listed.

From start to finish......the spindle whorls are rough cut out...then they go to the router to have the holes cut out. Then they are sanded smooth, polished, and buffed. He then takes them to the wood lathe where he turns the spindle shafts, fits them in the whorls, sands them, test fits again, polishes and buffs them.....one at a time.

We can't do shows anymore....for one I have stomach problems which makes it hard to travel. The other reason is we don't have the inventory to go to shows......we would hear you all screaming for miles if we stopped selling spindles on etsy so we could carry them to a show somewhere. For this same reason we do not have bulk discounts either.

We used to do shows......we have been down that long hard road.......getting everything packed to go to a show....driving....hotels...eating out.....setting up for the show....packing up after the show.....driving...eating out.... unpacking when we get home and are too tired to even care if it gets unpacked.........been there done that and have the t-shirt to prove it..... =+}   I'll sit at home in my fluffy slippers, sipping tea in my pj's......Thank You very much! I do miss meeting the people, and talking to everyone but a body can only take so much.....

I know I've probably repeated myself here several times ...I'm not that good a writing........I tend to write like I talk .....run on sentences and all......... LOL!


On another note:

I hope you all understand we are doing the best we can.......Oklahoma is in a drought temperatures are the highest they have been since the 30's grass is all brown and dry.......Dale is working in a air-conditioned barn but even at that while the temps outside are high (115 degrees today) in his barn its in the 80's. We are loosing animals to this heat........they have cool water and we even have fans on them.......its hot! Night time lows are in the high 80's.....its hard to breathe when you step out the door...please help us pray for rain..........I know there are other states that are needing it as bad as we are.........Texas is one of them. Water rationing is looming and has begun in several small towns .........rolling black outs are being discussed....its bad!!

Ok, I'll shush now........thanks for listening!

Tiny spindles everywhere and a few mediums too!

I feel like the town crier.......the spindles are coming, more spindles are coming!!

I will be posting 13 tiny spindles and I think 5 medium spindles in just a little while......so stay tuned to the etsy shop, the spindles are coming.

Also, if you have been wanting a medium spindle with a tiny weight..you are in luck, I have one or two with this listing but....... I will have several in a few days. They will be in the exotic woods not the dymondwoods......sorry. The density of the dymondwoods makes it relatively impossible to shave enough off to drop the weight on them that low.

So stay in where it is cool, make yourself comfy , have a nice glass of tea because..........more spindle are coming!!!

Comments

Please feel free to leave comments on this blog when ever you can.....I hate that empty sound.....like feedback it makes me feel like someone is listening. =+}

Speaking of feedback..........please leave feedback on etsy when you buy something even if its just a Thanks or Thank You. I prefer that to a blank feedback even though it may be a poitive blank feedback it leaves us with the question........were they unhappy!? was there something wrong!? I especailly hate it when I have worked so hard on getting everything just the way they want it sending email back and forth and then we get a blank feedback from them...........were like whoa! what happened there!? Ruins my whole day....... =+{

If there ever is a problem with anything.......please let us know ...........send us a note, a email, call us, we can work the problem out. Please don't bash us on a public forum before you have even discussed the problem with us. Yes, we are extremely busy but we are never to busy to listen if you have a problem with something. We will do our darnedest to fix it, whatever it may be and how ever long it has been since you made the purchase.

The feedback comments are like icing on our cake it really keeps us going it lets us know we are doing something positive.....

Are we ever going to make more spindles!!???

The short answer is .....yep!
I  posted several medium exotic wood spindles last week and there are a few left. Some of the rosewoods are getting quite scarse and when these are gone there may not be any more.....

I will be posting 19 tiny spindles on Sunday ....9 of them are dymondwood the rest are exotic woods. Dale tells me he may have a couple more and then he will be working on mediums. Here is a sneak peek..........

We have a few new small things listed one of them is a bobbin winder to go with the russian spindles or they can be used as sample bobbins in classes. There are a lot of little uses for them........speaking of a lot of uses. Have you seen the new orificer threaders? They are made to be used to thread the orifice on a mini spinner, but you can also use them on your regular spinning wheel orifice. Make sure to watch the length of them though as we are making some of them in short lengths. The shorter ones can be used with ridged heddle looms, tape looms, and the list goes on as they do have a multitude of uses.

Keep an eye on us no telling what we might come up with next.......=+}

Time out needed

The heat is getting to us and we are all feeling a bit tired and cranky lately.........we are going to close the etsy shop for a bit to give us a chance to rest, catch up and enjoy the holiday weekend........

Shop will be closing late tonight and won't open until next week sometime after the holiday..........

Thanks and enjoy your 4th of July...........

Dale, Barbara, and Joshua