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Pearls Before the Swine
"Cast not thy pearls before the swine, lest they trample them underfoot
and turn to gore thee." I know at least some of you can relate to my delimma . . . I don't really enjoy production runs very much. The thrill is gone after the prototype goes together. But for the first time in a long time, I agreed to build a bunch of serving trays for us to give for Christmas presents. Now these are nothing particularly fancy, just an open box with the sides flared at 10 degrees, arched ends with cutouts for the handles, dovetail joints at the corners, and a laminated bottom with a field of lacewood between narrow strips of walnut and mahogony. I had enough scraps and leftovers from other projects to make 8 of them. A week or so ago, one of our better friends stopped by and found me out in the shop with my partially completed trays stacked to a pretty impressive height. Of course she wanted to see what I was making so I showed her one. She was taken with the beauty of the grain in the lacewood and went on and on about how beautiful it was. Now we have never exchanged Christmas presents with this couple even though they are pretty good friends, but I knew she wanted one. Problem is, all the ones I'm building are already designated for others. Over the next week, two other people told me she had told them about the beautiful trays I was building. Then, last night she called me to ask if she can buy one of my trays to give to her mother for Christmas. I told her all of the trays were spoken for, and I don't have time to build her one before Christmas. I still have to scramble so the finish on these will be dry on time. My problem is that she, like most people, really have no concept of the amount of time and effort that goes into producing something like that. I'm sure she would have been willing to pay a "reasonable" price for such an item, but I'm not willing to part with them for a reasonable sum. A "reasonable" sum wouldn't pay the heating bill for my shop, much less buy the wood or give me any wages at all for my time. I know I'm overstating, but you know what I mean. How do you folks handle these situations? DonkeyHody "We are all ignorant, just about different things." - Will Rogers |
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