The Store Window Gallery

A year or so ago friends made window space available to me at 311 Broadway in nearby Cottonwood Falls, Kansas. I displayed a variety of small ironwork pieces and was really surpassed at the number of responses from prospective customers both in the desire to purchase a displayed item and to commission other custom work.

While Cottonwood Falls is a small rural town in Chase County it has an interesting history and several popular tourist attractions which draws a steady stream of visitors from all across the US and abroad. You can check it out at this and other web sites:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cottonwood_Falls,_Kansas

The gallery is over 20 miles from my studio so I can’t actually be there but it offers people a chance to see some of my work and signs in the window advise them how to contact me by phone or Email and how to find the website.

The header image of the entry was taken by Cheryl Unruh and posted on her website:
http://www.flyoverpeople.net/news/2010/05/16/persimmon-store/

While on that subject I’ll put in a plug for her new book. Check:
http://www.southwindartgallery.com/estore/pid-646-Flyover_People_Book_by_Cheryl_Unruh.html

It is always a struggle for artists in midwest small towns to get marketing exposure. I was lucky to be given the window space.

Looking ahead, I’m working on some articles about using the hydraulic forging press. I built one this summer when it was too hot to get much forging done. It is proving to be more useful than I imagined. I’m still learning more about it’s applications every day so when I feel I have enough experience you’ll hear about it.

Hurry Up Jobs

My operational intent is to work on commission projects on a first-come-first-served basis. In practice it is hard for outsiders to see this working.

Usually several projects are in varying states of progress simultaneously and each will take a different length of time to complete. I move from one to the other in what I judge to be the most efficient manner, but, interruptions do occur.

Breakdown of some essential piece of equipment is sometimes a problem but can largely be mitigated with a good redundancy plan. I’ll write about that in a later post.

I am most likely to take on interrupting work if the request is based on a safety issue. For instance, twice this year I have had to do handrail projects because the homeowner was concerned about a fall risk.

In the fall I have a period in which my schedule is frequently interrupted by a chimney sweep friend. He is an expert on fireplace safety and when his customers start calling for inspections and cleaning he starts showing up with urgent requests for firebacks and smoke guards and other items needed for fire safety. So again this seems like a legitimate excuse to accommodate his schedule so I don’t sense any conscience conflict.

However, I feel like I’m stepping out onto the slippery slope when people, usually friends, call and request something for a birthday, anniversary, of holiday gift. So far, I’ve always caved into those request too. Fortunately, these items are ordinarily small things and sometimes I have some completed items from which they can choose.

Finally, here comes the Christmas season. The Arts Council features an “Art Gifts” display, there is a “Holiday Gift Shop” run by a consortium of regional artists and there is an “Artists Open House” weekend gallery shortly before Christmas. All these require production of an inventory of items appropriate to the gallery.

After the opening of the new year there is a three or four month period of calm when I can get a lot of client work completed. I’m really looking forward to that now.

http://www.persimmonforge.com/

Cracked Fingers

Maybe I’m just abnormally clumsy or inattentive but I think I manage to acquire at least one minor wound a day a welding splatter burn, a burr cut, a bruised thigh just at anvil horn height, whatever. Thankfully I’ve never gotten seriously injured but the injury squeamish person might argue that’s just a definition of terms issue.

Those are random and quickly resolving unpleasant nuisances but cracked fingers are an enduring aggravation. I was going to take a picture of one of the cracks but I found a nice illustration on a better looking finger at this URL.

http://www.planetfear.com/blog.php?id=77

It is even more disturbing that I can’t seem to figure out exactly why this happens.

The cracking season begins around Halloween and lasts until just about income tax filing time - half of he year. The splits develop on the tip of some fingers at the tip of the fingernail on the side nearest my little fingers and are more prominent on right, dominant, hand.

Maybe this is a genetic thing with environmental overtones. One of my sons, a working carpenter, shares the pain of the finger splits so we can compare and share our experiences.

So, what can be done about this malady? I have some suggestions based on my experiments. First, I think keeping the nails trimmed short and well manicured can help. Second, Using skin softening products on the calloused areas on a regular basis, daily or more often. I carry a Chap Stick tube in my pocket. I keep a couple of jars of Udder Balm in the studio and a plastic tube of Gold Bond Ultimate Healing lotion in the pickup and at my computer work station. I believe all these products, and probably many which I haven’t tried, help heal or prevent the painful cracks, but I haven’t found a real magic bullet so I’ll be dealing with this until the trees leaf out next spring. Worse yet, Chapped Lip Season is coming soon too and will run almost as long.

http://www.persimmonforge.com/

My "No Risk" Policy

At the beginning of every commission project I feel it is important to gain the confidence of the client and, as much as possible, put them at ease about the process. Most of the people I deal with know little about ironwork or the commission process.

Most of the projects I contract can be completed for less that $1,000.00. I’m not really into the business of larger architectural work which would typically run a lot more and in those cases I would work out a step by step approval and partial payment arrangement.

A lot of my projects contain elements, particularly botanical elements, which could be used in other projects so they are not stringently dedicated to a particular work. Therefore, quite often, I can tell the clients if they aren’t pleased with the end result, they don’t have to buy it. I’ll start over and we’ll get it right. I believe I can sell their intended work in another venue or I can salvage components to use elsewhere even it it’s just for a studio illustration model. That gives them a “no risk” entry point.

My best advertising comes from word of mouth recommendations from clients so I want them satisfied. So far, I haven’t had a client reject a piece of commissioned work.

There is a flip side to the “no risk” notion which occurs to me. When I make a new style something or a new type something there is a learning process and it may take several tries to get a design which I find really appealing. Along the way there are those prototype pieces which are good enough to put out for sale but only time will tell if they are popular and will sell for what I think they are worth. From time to time I look over what has been shown a couple of times and hasn’t sold. I can’t really know if it’s just not appealing or the price is too high so to gain further insight into the issue I’ll donate the work to one of the community charity auctions and see what it brings. For me that makes the process of developing new work a “no risk” deal. Either I can sell the piece or I can help raise money for worthy causes and I learn more about the art ironwork business all at the same time. There is no way to lose if the end result must be income or charitable donation and always the entertainment and enjoyment of creative work.

http://www.persimmonforge.com/

PVC Tube Racks

Years ago I was given a steel rack and installed it on the north porch of the studio. Arriving steel was carelessly shelved without any real organization other than being about ten foot long. This really wasn’t a problem as long as my inventory was small and I only had a few sticks of this and that but after there were ten or a hundred pieces it was a mess. Invariably, if I needed a stick of 1/4” by 2” it was three inches deep under other sizes of flat bar and was impossible to pull out.

One year in the hot season I took some time off and obtained PVC tube in two, three and four inch sizes and rearranged the same-size steel inside the tubes. Previously I had used some thin wall three and four inch steel tubing to segregate various sizes of stock and I was somewhat surprised to feel how much easier it was to pull out bars from the PVC tubes that the steel tubes. The friction is much less.

I worked at the project over a couple of months and I think the system can’t be improved much more. It’s very functional. I can quickly see which sizes of stock are in short supply and they are easy to count for inventory. It is pretty easy for me to “eyeball” size the stock but since my wife does most of this counting job I often use a Presto pen marker to write the stock size on the top piece in the tube or on the tube itself.

The only hidden bummer I’ve found so far is that the outdoor tubes provide attractive space for mice and mud dauber wasps to build their nests. One summer I discovered an old but still fragrant mouse nest in a tube in the tumbler room. Soon after, I discovered a blacksnake nearby, apparently attracted by the scent. There is never a dull moment.

http://www.persimmonforge.com/

The No Scrap Shop

One sure way to achieve this is to throw all the drops into the scrap/recycle bin and haul it away.

However, my goal is to use all the steel I bring in and not have to recycle any. I never fully achieve this but come pretty close by being well organized.

After any length is cut from a new stick it never returns to a “full length” rack. I often write the length on the visible end with a correction pen marker. This makes selection and inventory easier.

I explained earlier how I accumulate same-type stock drops approximately between 2” and 15” in several 5 gallon buckets near the tumbler. When the bucket is nearly full I dump out the pieces on the platen table and sort them “same size” then lay them end-to-end in a 5’ piece of angle and tack them together to create approximately 5’ lengths and rack them. The reconstituted stock is mainly used to construct things used in the studio, frames, jigs, labels on porter bars and dies, etc.

When a drop is just to small to be worth tacking but still has significant mass it goes into the “smash” bucket. Off and on in a slack time I heat these and smash them with the power hammers to form little random tiles about a half inch thick and tumble them. They are later grouped and used to provide the mass required in sculpture bases.

When a drop is just too small or ugly to be useful as a smashed tile it goes into the recycle can but that is a very small fraction of the the steel which entered the shop.

http://www.persimmonforge.com/

Steel Stock Management

After about five years of work a considerable mass of steel accumulated inside and outside the studio. It was not readily useful because often the needed dimensional stock could not be found or was the bottom piece of a deep pile.

I concluded those problems illustrated the two most important principles of organizing materials. First, I must be able to find them easily and secondly, I must be able to retrieve them easily.

It didn’t happen quickly but over several more years I have largely developed a functional steel management scheme.

My stock is now well organized. Every piece of steel has a predestined path from arrival to eventual consumption. When I receive stock I cut the 20’ sticks in half. I have a rack under my 4 x 10’ layout table that houses 10’ lengths of square and round stock from 3/16” up to 1.5” and some other special stock. Tubing, pipe, channel, angle, “I” beam and other larger 10’ long stock go on a rack on the porch. When the 10’ pieces are cut down they go into the tumbler before they used or stored if they are shorter than 5’, which is what my tumbler accommodates. If they are longer than 5’ they are put on the shelf until enough is eventually cut off that they will fit the tumbler. If drops are shorter than 15” (but longer than 2”) they go into the porch buckets after they are tumbled.

The scrap pieces are all clean and deburred and easy to organize for storage. I keep a rack holding 28 five-gallon buckets on a covered porch on the north side of my studio. All cutoffs approximately 2” to 15” in length go into those buckets sorted by the type of stock, round bar, flat bar square bar, tubing, angle, copper and bronze, etc. Pieces shorter than about 2” go either into the scrap recycling bucket or into the tumbler to use as aggregate. Small pieces with sufficient mass are used to make sculptural tiles which will be explained in a future posting.

I waste no time looking for the right piece of stock and I don’t get cut on burs digging through a bucket.

Specific production type projects like my garden rain gauge, blow pokers, napkin holders, oriole jelly feeders or a botanical motif are stored in clearly labeled drawers, 5-gallon buckets or plastic boxes . The container stores all the blanks, jigs, templates, special tooling required for that project. The instruction file is stored separately in a file cabinet.

Developing the discipline to be compulsive takes a lot of work and it takes some time to pay off but it can separate those who make a profit from those who don’t.

http://www.persimmonforge.com/