My Eighth Thing - Make things

Satin and Brass Part 3 – Make things.

This singular entry will be the opposite as almost all of its predecessors and most of its subsequent follow-ups - because this one is not even *kinda* little.

And here's why: PINTEREST LIES.

Finding furniture to refinish (outside of flea market/garage sale season) is hard. Making physical things is hard. Learning to paint and refinish and 'distress' things in the modern taste is hard.

You don't just pull apart a cheap mirror and fit it into an easy frame to create a beautiful, high-fashion leaner mirror befit to grace the closet of Jill Sanders. It just doesn't work that way.

That frame doesn't assemble in a 90 degree, squared up creation that doesn't twist and angle worse than a bad acid trip. That actually takes three tries and a journey into the joys wood framing. (Of which you previously knew nothing about and had a total of zero tools that would be required).

That cheap mirror doesn't 'quickly come apart' like they said it would on Pinterest and you aren't experienced enough to know the different chemical solutions off hand that would assist you in this process. You have to ask around - you have to break two mirrors in the process - you have to ask the hardware store to price you a mirror of the same measurements to realize that if you don't figure this 'cheap mirror' out that you will never logistically create something that anyone would actually purchase at a price you should be selling it for. 

You don't even know how to ATTACH a mirror to the back of your heavy frame without learning how to use a router (that you don't yet own) or by finding the small, unnamable, plastic fittings that you know exist but no hardware store associate can seem to translate your babble enough to show you where they are.

Every project is like this. You don't just put five pieces of wood together and 'add legs' to make a table. Legs are expensive to buy and difficult to make from scratch. Table tops need to be assembled in a specific way to make sure they don't warp in the future. You shouldn't even technically be using purchased lumber to create furniture because of how it is cut and dried is specific to construction (and not furniture) purposes.

It isn't cheap. It isn't easy. They aren't showing you all of the steps. It isn't supposed to be created out of those materials you see. It isn't for a beginner to attempt.

So many of these projects shown on idea sites are not drawn up, purchased and assembled by a thirty-something housewife. She is just the one taking pictures - proud of the work that her professional wood-working husband has created. 

Initially I have started out with a near 25 projects. 5 filing cabinet refinishings, 2 of those fitted into a small desk set-up, an 8 foot dining table, 3 square tables with metal under fittings, 2 Ikea 'hack' tables, 2 Ikea 'hack' laptop tables, 4 leaner mirrors, and 5-10 coffee table/bar/nightstands thingiemabobs. I have every single one of these started in one form or another. I have invested over a thousand dollars into this market so far - not counting the woodworking tools and sawhorses I have purchased (because we will need them eventually for building a house, other projects, etc).

I have 4 complete and ready to sell as of today.

The market is in 4 weekends.

Eek.

If you would have showed me this future 3 months ago I would have never agreed to be in the market at all. If someone asked me today if they should join a similar market a few months prior with zero pre-work/experience in the trade - I would tell them they are legitimately crazy.

Never-the-less - here we are.   ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I have 12 tabletop/desktop surfaces cut, stained, finished (minus a coat of poly here and there). I have acquired and assembled all of those bases and need to put the two together. I have completed a BEAUTIFUL coffee table and a GORGEOUS nightstand that I just adore. I have another cabinet that simply requires the top attached. The leaner mirrors require one adjustment and then reassembled as do the rest of the items on the list. I would like to predict that I would have many of these done by the end of this week and ready to move on to a few more.

Honestly I have not made a single thing that I wouldn't immediately purchase for my own home. I haven't yet cobbled or hacked together one item that I wouldn't stand by as far as quality. This often means I have drawn and redrawn the building plans based on my furthered knowledge of how things fit and work together in a sturdy fashion. I have a *lot* of math. (That's a big deal if you know me personally)

I have learned three types of joinery. I Have learned why joinery is important. I have learned about how to choose wood. I have learned facing, mitering, scrolling, lathing, dovetailing.... It's incredible.

That is the crux of this 'thing'.

I'm not just out here making things for Gypsy anymore. I have learned lifelong lessons about woodworking. When something isn't working the way they said it would on a 'hack' site like Pinterest I find myself going deep into the realm of traditional woodworking and learning the age-old craft as it was done hundreds of years ago - and WHY it has remained to be done by those specific steps - because IT WORKS.

I love wood working. I have told Jay that regardless of the outcome of Gypsy and this Satin and Brass experiment that this will probably be something that I remain doing for a very long time. Making things with my own hands is exciting and gives you a powerful feeling. If the whole experiment fails and I make zero dollars back on my investment it will still have been worth it just due to that simple fact alone.

If nothing else I know know how to make tables, night stands, buffets, cabinets, etc for myself and my friends and family.