Hi everyone, Meb here!

I want to let you know about a book out right now on Kindle called Craftspeople: In Their Own Words. It’s a series of stories written by all sorts of amazing craftspeople, and I’ve written a chapter in it called Sailor’s Net! The piece is a comparison of sailors and craftspeople, highlighting the similarities in temperament and skills needed for an off-the-mainstream lifestyle. Tom and I are even on the cover above the letters PLE of Craftspeople!

This eBook is a labor of love, by jeweler Valerie Hector and metal-smith David Bacharach, to benefit CERF. This amazing organization has saved so many craftspeople, including us, Meb’s Kitchenwares, during Tom’s bout with colon cancer. (You can read the story about that, titled Topping Out on our website.) If you’re not familiar with Kindle, (it’s new to me, too), the authors are listed alphabetically. You’ll find my story under B for Boden!

There are so many fun articles, as well as serious stories—I enjoy just nibbling a few each day. Then, I follow up by going to the craftsperson’s website, listed at the end of the Table of Contents, to see more of their work! Here’s a link to purchase the eBook: Craftspeople: In Their Own Words.
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If you’re like me, you enjoy leafing through pages, using sticky notes or (eek!) highlighters or (double eek!) dog-earring… so you’ll be pleased to know that there’s a hardcover version in the works. See the Generosity Page to help make that happen. It’s getting so close to becoming a reality—today, they’ve reached 84% of their goal! Visit Craftspeople Book for Craft Emergency Relief Fund to learn more and pitch in!

I’m participating in an interesting show this Sunday—a Kosher Barbeque! Thirty BBQ teams and no pork. I’m salivating already. I asked the organizers if it was in poor taste to bring along our curly-tailed pigs, of which some have recently sprouted wings. She gave us the go-ahead, even before hearing the following story.


                     Three years ago in Tarrytown

    A woman came into my craft show booth, walked directly to a large pig cutting board, stood for a moment, sighed and walked out. Twice more during the day, she repeated the routine.

Near closing time, she came back with her husband and gestured to the pig. The man rolled his eyes. She burst out laughing.

She looked at me and giggled. “I love that pig!” she said. “I’m a rabbi and I keep kosher, but I love that pig!”

They made a sweet picture winding through the closing booths in the sunset:  the husband, the rabbi and the kosher pig.

With the fall season already in full crispy swing, we’ve made a startling decision. This year, we told each other, we’re determined not feel the usual pressure of the holidays. We’d like to relax and celebrate a bit ourselves. With that in mind, we’ve cancelled FOUR (EEK!) of our standard fall shows.

For many years now, we’ve traveled to 20 plus shows a year—one nearly every other week! This year, we’ll do only eleven.

We started off smoothly enough, relaxed after no shows from January to May. We’d gone back to our roots—doing construction work and making stained glass panels –satisfying work that paid our rent while we waited for the way to become clear.

Our first show at the Bruce Museum was a fabulous comeback, showcasing some new work and getting an award. Even the first weekend of Lincoln Center was fun. But quickly we fell back into our old ways with a second grueling Lincoln Center, a huge wholesale order and two new, not financially rewarding shows. It’s hard to catch up on rest and serenity.

But we’re making health and happiness our priorities this year. Our hope is that by doing fewer shows, we’ll have more time to devote to website sales and custom orders as well as to the few shops we supply with our wares. And we really MUST put the roof shingles on the house!

Already, we’re feeling less stressed by paying fewer booth fees, hotel and travel costs. I’m confident that we can again find inventive ways to make money. It seems easier when we’re not running frazzled-ly about, putting out fires, constantly on the road and never home in our safe haven.

We feel sure that these changes will help us better spend this one life we have to live. We’ll let you know how it goes…

Woodworking is a solitary profession. Much of our time is spent alone/together in the workshop: noisy machines blaring, dust spewing, the overworked dust collection system sweeping sand against the tide. Craft shows enlarge our world-- bringing feedback, social interaction and inspiration from other artists.  

And then, what fun—after 12+ years creating our woodenwares, we’re winning prizes! Bruce Museum, Greenwich, CT in May--3rd Place in Wood and last weekend in Old Saybrook, CT--First Place in Wood.  And in lieu of “Best Booth” at a favorite unnamed show, we’ve been assured of the primo booth location in years to come.

It’s gratifying to be recognized for the work we do as well as our presentation. It reinforces our partnership as artists and solidifies our marriage. 

Our work is time-and brain-consuming, though, and we both wish there were more hours in the day for furthering our homestead and writing projects. As well, we wish for more time to just enjoy each other’s company—Life is so short.

So this week, we’ll combine our Vermont wood-purchasing trip with a family reunion and a bit of vacation. We hope to return with fabulous wood, better attitudes and rested souls.

Happy Summer! 

We made it through the 2 shows in a row! Fabulous! Grueling! Great people! Arduous! NYC!  Heavenly weather! Long! In a word-- BLUR!

Yes, we DO have to break down on the first Sunday night (we finally park the van at midnight). We drive home on Monday and back to the City again on Friday night. Then we set up again Saturday at 5AM and break down—again—on Sunday, finishing at midnight.  We spend that time between shows recuperating, paying that 8.875%  sales tax (so I don’t have to pay in a lump sum next year) mowing the lawn and making some more pieces.

As usual, I forgot to drink enough water and consistently eat good food, so I went a bit crazy, but got it together enough to play fiddle last weekend at Chelsea’s (logo and photos)* wedding!

I’m trying to apply the good lessons learned from our “sabbatical”, so now that I’m somewhat back on track, I plan to continue the learning this weekend at a new show for us—in Norwalk, CT. Sue Gordon Brown is producer for this show—we figure it’ll be lovely, as she also produces the amazing Bruce Museum show in May.

* Chelsea took most of the professional photos on this site AND drew the fork and spoon logo that defines US—our BRAND on each wooden piece we make, on all of our tags and card and at the top of each page of this website.

Bruce Museum Fine Craft Show--What a lovely comeback for this, our first show of 2014!

The Bruce staff and volunteers treat the artists like, well, Respected Artists!—a gratifying change from shows where we’re simply background, entertainment or salespeople. A wide range of talent and gorgeous craft was available to the public as usual.

Food and drink was always available to us and booth sitters if we needed to run off for a moment. The Saturday Night Dinner was a banquet of homemade delicacies—Museum Exhibits director, Anne von Stuelpnagel makes a kielbasa dish that I’ve droolingly remembered since last year’s Dinner. This year’s party favor was a luscious book from the Bruce Museum press-- Paris Portraits: Artists, Friends, and Lovers—a new treasure for our bookcases.

And then, the awards ceremony...Sue Brown Gordon, the festivals manager, is the funniest master of ceremonies, besides being a gifted jeweler and the Very Best Show Director.  Meb’s Kitchenwares won our first award: a beautiful yellow ribbon for the Wood Category!

I reveled in chatting with friends we haven’t seen since December. I’d forgotten the great pleasure of talking to people about our work. Now, when I’m in the workshop, I re-live those conversations, the feedback comes out through my fingers, the beautiful wood inspires more conversations—and so it goes, round and round.

Tried out an owl which now lives in Hawaii at Puu Pueo (Owl Hill). Tom’s gorgeous tongs live in 20 more homes. One of my favorite customers picked up spoons she’d ordered a year and a half ago—before my stroke! Tom has made a TABLET STAND (check it out in Fresh From the Workshop) All in all, a lovely show!

And since we were also financially successful, we depleted our stock—so now it’s nose-to-the-grindstone as we make many more pieces for our summer shows!

It's raining here in northeastern CT as we set off two hours south for our first show of the year. Tomorrow promises good weather, so we're excited and nervous and happy to be on the road again.