Archive for February, 2009
So Why Craft Shows?
I feel like I’m still searching for that answer. Beside the fact that I wanted an outlet to sell my products, something intrigued me about getting out and meeting people. The thing I really like about shows is getting immediate feedback on my products. Craft shows give me a connection with customers that I cannot get with online selling. When someone buys from my online store, I have no idea why they bought, or what compelled them to choose one item over another one. When a customer is in my booth, I can talk to them, get their comments, and actually tell the story behind the products.
Doing a show is hard work. You get up early, load a lot of heavy boxes into the trailer, find the venue, hunt for the show promoter, and finally find your booth spot. I use a Trimline canopy. Unlike the popular Ez-Up, the Trimline takes about four times longer to set up. It’s a heavy, professional grade canopy and even though I miss the ease of my old Ez-Up, I know that barring a hurricane, it will still be there the next day. The majority of my products are cutting boards, so the weight of all the products I take to a show is quite large. The products are transported in multiple large containers, each one weighing 75 to 100 pounds. I love shows where I can pull right up to my booth and unload. It makes getting these heavy boxes into the booth much easier. Some shows require you to dolly everything to the booth which can add a significant amount of setup time.
The hardest part of setting up the booth is getting the canopy up. Once that’s done, it’s just a matter of setting up tables, displays, and putting out the products. Most shows allow setup the day before the show starts. This takes a little pressure off since I can take my time. A few shows only allow day of the show setup which tends to crank up my blood pressure because you usually only get a couple of hours to setup before the crowd arrives. Once the show starts, I can finally relax. I have a director’s chair that I can sit in and watch the crowd, talk to potential customers, and hopefully enjoy good weather.
Tear down is generally low-keyed. I tend to take my time and wait to be the last one out because there is always a mad dash by hundreds of vendors trying to get their vehicles close to their booths. I learned to just take my time and wait until it clears out before getting my vehicle to my booth. It takes me a while to tear down anyway because I have to pack everything back in the appropriate container. I don’t want to re-pack when I get home because during the show season, everything stays packed and ready for the next show. All I have to do is replace inventory in each container.
The Dipping Board Saga
We are a veggie family. No, I’m not a vegetarian. There’s nothing better than a good ribeye, but we eat a lot of raw veggies with dip. As a result, I make these veggie trays that have much more character than the cheap plastic ones you see in most homes.
I also wanted to use the same board for serving bread with a dipping oil. SInce the well was sized for store-bought veggie dip containers, I needed to find a bowl that would fit the well. Now this didn’t seem to be a big deal, but after searching for two months, I couldn’t find one that fit exactly. Being an Etsy seller, I searched their pottery artists and found a set of three dipping bowls that appeared to be the correct size. They also looked nice. Unfortunately, after receiving them, they were just a hair too big. I loved the bowls though, and contracted with the artist to make ones custom sized to fit my boards.
Here’s the result. I think they turned out very nice and really enhance the board.
Why Wood Cutting Boards?
You just can’t beat the look and feel of a quality wood cutting board. There is a huge difference in the feel of a knife as it comes into contact with a good wood cutting board. Yes, plastic is cheaper and lighter, but plastic will not last anywhere near as long as a well built wood cutting board. I view wood cutting boards like cast iron skillets. With proper care, they can be passed down to future generations.
There will always be discussions on wood versus plastic and which one is the best. Well, I can tell you that once you use a good end grain board to prepare your meal, you will never go back to plastic. But to all the naysayers, draw your own conclusion from the following information:
Plastic cutting boards use to be considered superior to wood because the grooves cut into a wooden board by the knife harbored bacteria that would infect the next food that was cut. The argument was plastic boards were harder than wood, developed fewer grooves, and were less likely to harbor bacteria. Over time however, studies have shown that wood cutting boards harbor fewer bacteria for these reasons:
Plastic is not water-absorbent and stays wet longer which promotes longer bacteria life.
Wood is water-absorbent and dries faster which shortens the bacteria life.
Wood contains natural agents that retard bacterial growth.
Chicken carries the highest risk of cross contamination. This comes from cutting chicken on any type of board and not thoroughly wasing it before preparing a salad or other side dish. This means there is a higher risk of food poisoning. So it is best to use two boards, one for chicken and one for every thing else. Of course, a separate board for meats and one for vegetables is the ideal and safest situation. Once you properly cook the meat, any cross contamination bacteria will be killed.
A wood cutting board can be properly disinfected by washing it with a solution of two tablespoons of bleach to a quart of water. Then wiped with vinegar to remove the bleach. Don’t leave the bleach on the board too long because of potential permanent stating of the board. Here again, dedicating one board to meats and one to vegetables, will eliminate having to deal with this step.
Plastic and glass cutting boards are harder than wood, so they will dull a knife faster. However, you can put plastic and glass cutting boards in the dishwasher without having to worry about whether they’ll warp and crack. Wood is easier on knives but requires regular care in order to last.
Rinse the cutting board off under the faucet using regular dish washing soap.
Dry the board immediately.
Once a month, rub the board with mineral oil, or use our board conditioner which contains beeswax that imparts water-resistance properties to the board.
Hello world!
I feel like i’ve gone 360 degrees. I have maintained this blog for a while to document my craft business happenings. WordPress has been my blog software of choice for the past 6 months. Like most, I was was using the free WordPress blog site, which worked well, but I wanted a little more control and access to more templates. Just recently, I changed to a new hosting provider and installed the server version of WordPress. This allowed me to change to more interesting templates, plus utilize more powerful plugins.
I have cut and paste the old blog entries over and I am continuing to play with the new features this change has provided, so stay tuned as I continue to blog about my woodworking. Regards!
