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Things We do to Serve out Customers

In between setting up the crockpot with stew for tonight's dinner and serving lunch to my temporarily invalided spouse, I turned a hard maple bowl this morning. It was one of those "tweeners," small for salad, marginal for a bag of micro popcorn, and too big for a nut bowl. I figure most likely use is chips or such, so I consciously did a few things for my customer.

1) I cut the walls thin, for capacity, but left the bottom heavy for stability. No sense making something tippy if it's going to be picked up and set down multiple times in use.

2) I made a lip outside and a slight undercut inside, where a thumb can find a grip as the bowl is passed. No sense making something easy to drop and spread the contents on the dogs' "table."

3) I prepped it for a surface finish - probably polyurethane - rather than a show only type. No sense leaving it too vulnerable to water if folks are going to have to wipe out the fragments of chips and/or oil with a bit of detergent and water.

Now it's plain vanilla, as hard maple tends, but I consider that its utility enhancements make it the useful equal of a piece of curly fluff that can barely stand on its own and sports a buffed wax finish over a French polish.

What considerations do you folks give your customers when you approach a blank?

Reply to
George
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===> George, I note that you are having dilemma after dilemma when the answers are right at hand. Just make sure it meets all OSHA, FDA, NIH, NTSB standards and your problem is solved. I am sure somewhere in the bowels of Government there are standards for a non-standard-sized potential chip/popcorn bowl. You seem to be skirting proper thinking in these matters! *G*

Leif

Reply to
Leif Thorvaldson

George, After 7 years of selling bowls, I have come to the conclusion that there is no standard that will sell all of the time. Some people like shallower bowls, some like deeper bowls. Some like them thin, some like them thick, some like dark, some like light. If you are going to a show, in order to do $ 3,000 sales, you need $6,000 to $10,000 worth of inventory, of all sizes and shapes, bowls, boxes, rolling pins, spheres, vases, etc. Specialization is for insects. robo hippy

Leif Thorvalds> > In between setting up the crockpot with stew for tonight's dinner and

French

approach a

Reply to
robo hippy

Great attention to detail will serve your customer and it sounds like you have nailed it. Be cautious that you are not unintentionally duplicating a style originated by someone else.

Just kidding, I am over it now and there will not be any more posts from me on plagiarism. and no more posts after working nightshift, hard to keep emotions in check when you are exhausted

Kirk

Reply to
Kirk

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