Products so good they looked “commercial “

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mmayo

mmayo

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Jan 12, 2013
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Tehachapi, CA
I sell pens, cutting boards razors, rings, seam rippers and a host of other items at a local coop. Recently, someone complained that my stuff was so good I looked commercial, I guess looking like I could not have made it. That to me was a back handed complement though it was not intended as a compliment. I am not sure how to remedy the situation as I do make everything in a one man shop. It is not unusual to work every day, all day in my shop. I try with each pen to use everything that I've learned from making hundreds of pens to make a great pen. I do the same for cutting boards and all other items.

I guess I'll ignore the comment and just keep making my stuff as I have been.
 
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Had a bit of a revelation just last week.
Partner posted a couple of pics of some blanks I just got alongside some of my finished pens and one of comments was "I didn't know how much work went into those"
I'm now mulling over if there is value in showing as least a few of the 'raw' blanks along with my pens, just to help with that awareness.
 
IF it is feasible to display it at your venue, make a video that can play for people who have questions about your processes!
It could be very short, just showing the start and finish of turning, finishing, assembly--no need to give away any trade secrets
you may have--but it proves YOU do it!!

FWIW,
Ed
 
ed4copies said:
IF it is feasible to display it at your venue, make a video that can play for people who have questions about your processes!
It could be very short, just showing the start and finish of turning, finishing, assembly--no need to give away any trade secrets
you may have--but it proves YOU do it!!

FWIW,
Ed
Click to expand...
So what you're saying is... prove it's not commercial by making it *A* commercial lol.
 
I don't think ignore this. If one come up with this "compliment" embrace it. Use it to your advance. Just as Ed mention put a video on the page.
Lots of people think the same, but only a few tell you what the think. Nevertheless your work is very very nice.
 
mmayo said:
I sell pens, cutting boards razors, rings, seam rippers and a host of other items at a local coop. Recently, someone complained that my stuff was so good I looked commercial, I guess looking like I could not have made it. That to me was a back handed complement though it was not intended as a compliment. I am not sure how to remedy the situation as I do make everything in a one man shop. It is not unusual to work every day, all day in my shop. I try with each pen to use everything that I've learned from making hundreds of pens to make a great pen. I do the same for cutting boards and all other items.

I guess I'll ignore the comment and just keep making my stuff as I have been.
Click to expand...
An interesting fact...Navajo weavers leave flaws in their weavings to let out the trapped spirit.

In Navajo culture, rug weavers would leave little imperfections along the borders in the shape of a line called ch'ihónít'i, which is translated into English as "spirit line" or "spirit pathway. The Navajos believe that when weaving a rug, the weaver entwines part of her being into the cloth. The spirit line allows this trapped part of the weaver's spirit to safely exit the rug.

And I have a Persian rug with a deliberate flaw. Traditional, hand-made Persian rugs have intentional flaws because the Muslim artists feel that only Allah is perfect and has the right to create perfectly.
 
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mmayo said:
I sell pens, cutting boards razors, rings, seam rippers and a host of other items at a local coop. Recently, someone complained that my stuff was so good I looked commercial, I guess looking like I could not have made it. That to me was a back handed complement though it was not intended as a compliment. I am not sure how to remedy the situation as I do make everything in a one man shop. It is not unusual to work every day, all day in my shop. I try with each pen to use everything that I've learned from making hundreds of pens to make a great pen. I do the same for cutting boards and all other items.

I guess I'll ignore the comment and just keep making my stuff as I have been.
Click to expand...
Put up a board with pictures of you doing the work. Show them the process. Or set up a small video that loops showing how you work on your projects. That will dispel the idea that you are not making them.
 
ed4copies said:
IF it is feasible to display it at your venue, make a video that can play for people who have questions about your processes!
It could be very short, just showing the start and finish of turning, finishing, assembly
Click to expand...

You know..... on a comment I saw elsewhere I've been thinking about having a small box just so that people can try out the pens without bending down to table height.
Wouldn't be too difficult to do a cut out in the front and mount a small android tablet to continuously loop a video or a series of animated slides. If you are in a power-challenged venue the inside of the box can hold portable battery chargers to keep it alive.

And if you don't like your neighbors you can apply it to cheesy music. Baby Shark set to 1 minute video * 60 plays an hour * 10 hours ....
 
For a while on my desk at the office, I had a circle of the "cycle" around a double dyed buckeye burl pen. Chunk of wood, rough cut pen blank, dyed blank rough, one sanded & tubed, one turned with no finish, then a finished pen on a stand in the center. Nice conversation piece, and I sold 5 or 6 out of that dye batch just in our little office. Showed the progression in touchable form. People seemed impressed by how little room for error there was for the final turning.
 
mmayo said:
I guess I'll ignore the comment and just keep making my stuff as I have been.
Click to expand...

Probably the best thing to do - but I wouldn't be able to let it go. Make a list of snappy replies in case the same comment comes around again.

I'll start you off with a couple ...

- would you have said that to Leonardo da Vinci?
- how many flaws do you think would be the right number?
- sorry, all those years of practice get in my way - I'll try to remember to make a mistake next time.

(Of course the thing that I'd most want to say would get me a suspension if one of the moderators saw it :rolleyes: )
 
Darios said:
How do you pronounce that? I must be some form of auteur as that I've been doing this mistake thing automatically. I just want to be able to claim the proper credit for it. :p
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This word has four syllables. chʼíhonítʼiʼ= chʼí +ho +ní +tʼiʼ The first and third (second to last) syllables are high tone. So it is high/low/high/low. The marks above the vowels are high-tone marks. Unmarked means low.
 
The idea of a commercial showing the way you make the item is a good one. A simple QR code to "Pen creation" or any other items you make linking to a slide show video on Youtube of the process with the finished pen below it. I did a paper binder called "Birth of a Pen".
 
I agree - there's nothing wrong showing some photos or videos (the QR code is brilliant) in the booth to show people how you make everything along with the time and effort that goes into it.
 
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