The North Idaho Front Porch (Idaho Falls, Twin Falls: problems, demand, hear)

[shades_of_idaho]

Originally Posted by banjomike

Thank, Terra.
Yup- Rinaldi made excellent knives. They were both elegant and highly functional.

You know how it is as an artist/artisan/craftsman... the living is never stable or very predictable. The Great Recession was brutal on all the arts, and many of the crafts that are as much art as craft haven't ever recovered to what they were in the early 2000's.

Given his skills, I'm sure Trace was highly qualified for a lot of different metal working jobs. industry in California, especially in the high skill areas, is booming, and I wouldn't be a bit surprised if Trace simply found a good paying steady job and gave up trying to be a small entrepreneur; it's much harder for any devoted craftsman to do all the related business that comes along with the high-design, intensive labor, small quantity work, and the better known one becomes, the more frequently the very craft that made a reputation takes a back seat to the promotion of the product.

I have a friend in Pocatello who's a stunning furniture maker. Like Trace, he was doing great before the recession, but he never recovered, either. These days, he's just doing repair work and making a few guitars.

He said that at one time, his work was featured in national craft magazines, Architectural Digest, and some other big publications, and he travelled around to exhibit in national trade shows a lot, but even then, it was always feast or famine. In the end, it all became a rat race for him that left him pretty bitter.

I've made some furniture now and then, but just for my own use. The bench was the only thing I ever got any money for, and for the time in, the return was only so-so.

I passed up a free trip to Mongolia after I won the contract, and after it was done, I wished I had taken the trip instead.

It was a cultural exchange thing. I was to play banjo to the Mongols, and they were going to play their horse skull fiddles to me. The guys who hooked me up had the time of their lives while I was covered in sawdust.

Cowboys and Mongols. I would have been the only real cowboy in the bunch. My bro went in my place and had a very swell time.

Banjo Mike I have missed the piano key bench. Would you please show it again. Sounds wonderful.

I am so glad I do not try to make a living doing my art. Once in awhile I will do a project for some one because I want to do so not because I plan on selling it. My art for me is my mental medicine. I feel for those needing to make a living doing it.

So sad to hear of Ranildi losing his shop. Been away from her way too long. I do not have a lot of time on my hands caring for hubby right now. I will make it a point to come back for your piano key bench photo.

Waving to everyone. Welcome Terra. We moved to Idaho 30 years ago July 12th. I wanted to come in to celebrate the day and then promptly forgot. Darn ad it was memorable. The first step into our new lives. We built a little log cabin on the river but not in the woods in Clayton Idaho. Thirty years later we are now living in Midvale Idaho and I have planted my forest around me.

[volosong]

Originally Posted by shades_of_idaho

Banjo Mike I have missed the piano key bench. Would you please show it again. Sounds wonderful.

Post #3124 on page 313 of this thread.

It's a really cool bench.

[shades_of_idaho]

Originally Posted by banjomike

Nice work!

I'm sharing your pain, and mine hasn't even started yet. After I beat my backyard into semi-civilized condition, I'm going to stain my fence and my deck, paint my tool shed,and build some benches for the deck.

Here's a bench I built for a downtown beautification project in 2005.
Attachment 171147

Banjomike your Bench is Beautiful.

[Clark Fork Fantast]

Originally Posted by shades_of_idaho

Banjo Mike I have missed the piano key bench. Would you please show it again. Sounds wonderful.

I am so glad I do not try to make a living doing my art. Once in awhile I will do a project for some one because I want to do so not because I plan on selling it. My art for me is my mental medicine. I feel for those needing to make a living doing it.

So sad to hear of Ranildi losing his shop. Been away from her way too long. I do not have a lot of time on my hands caring for hubby right now. I will make it a point to come back for your piano key bench photo.

Waving to everyone. Welcome Terra. We moved to Idaho 30 years ago July 12th. I wanted to come in to celebrate the day and then promptly forgot. Darn ad it was memorable. The first step into our new lives. We built a little log cabin on the river but not in the woods in Clayton Idaho. Thirty years later we are now living in Midvale Idaho and I have planted my forest around me.

Chris, I'm so glad you're able to pop in and say hi from time to time. Those of us who have been around C-D for a while know you as one of our most upbeat, wise, supportive posters. I remember your beautiful art project with the sheer curtains you put around your front porch some years ago. So classy!

Hang in there... Looking forward to your next visit on the Porch!

[shades_of_idaho]

Originally Posted by Clark Fork Fantast

Chris, I'm so glad you're able to pop in and say hi from time to time. Those of us who have been around C-D for a while know you as one of our most upbeat, wise, supportive posters. I remember your beautiful art project with the sheer curtains you put around your front porch some years ago. So classy!

Hang in there... Looking forward to your next visit on the Porch!

Thanks Clark Fork. I miss being here Having fun. I just can not be in as many places as I need to be right now. Always so much to do now Hubby is not well and not able to help much. Scary times ahead.

Especially now, I am so grateful I am in Idaho. There are good people here. I do not have a fear of being alone. It was not in the plan. When do plans every go exactly anyway? You take care too I am off to get the morning chores done.

[elousv]

Nice to see you around Chris.
So we had a heck of a storm the other day. I am not sure if it the same storm that spawned a tornado in Airway Heights, WA but it could be. We were out shopping and had left DW car in town to get an oil change so we both had vehicles. We were just about done when I look at the sky towards our house and it is dark. I stopped for one more thing at Super 1 and while I was there I could near people's cell phones going nuts. I overheard one lady saying things like damaging hail and deadly lightning. Ok, time to head home. On the way I saw this:




It was just gnarly looking. I was all la-la-la going down the road and I come to an intersection and see someone parked there, kept going and then blam, can't see anything and it sounds like the hail is going to bust the windshield. I knew I was on the edge so I made a quick u-turn and went around where it was just torrential rain. DW was stuck on the highway with no turnoffs so had to muster through. Both of us agreed it was the most scary storm we ever drove through.

[Clark Fork Fantast]

We didn't go through anything as bad as that, but we had our share of spectacular storms in NID in June and July. Here's a pic from driving south on 200 into Ponderay (north of Sandpoint) on June 14. Some of those storms looked like they could spawn tornadoes, but we were sure that wouldn't happen in NID! Hmmm.

[elousv]

Wicked light show right now actually!

[banjomike]

Seeing those white hail lines dropping from the clouds always makes me nervous when I'm driving. If you come across a patch of hailstones on a highway just after they've fallen, and you are going to fast, it can suddenly be like driving on ball bearings. It's totally different than driving on black ice; the ice doesn't scare me, but the hailstones can.

My bro was once coming back home from Boise on I-15, and on a stretch that's close to the Snake river, a Cadillac blew by him going real fast. The Caddy fell out of sight around a blind curve, and then reappeared quite a far distance ahead, still speeding on.

My brother said the car suddenly did 2 full 360 spins and plunged off the road, down into the river bottoms. When my bro reached the spot, it was covered in hailstones from a storm neither vehicle was in. There was no place he could pull off, and he couldn't have helped the driver anyway, so he just kept going.

Neither of us ever heard anything about it at all in the news later on.

[Reziac]

Yeah, probably the worst driving conditions I've been in was when a hailstorm suddenly erupted over the interstate on a hot day, and BAM an inch of slick bumpy ice suddenly coated everything. I managed to pull over and stop, but saw all sorts of skating and sliding into ditches all around me.