We're stuck at home, what else are we gonna do?
During the first few days of the COVID-19 pandemic, my wife, Chris, asked me if I could I make her a gnocchi rolling board, the rest, as they say, is history.
...It was early April, 2020, and Oregon was under shelter-in-place orders. Chris was looking for things to do to keep her busy, so she had joined a shelter-in-place cooking group online and saw someone making gnocchi and figured it’d be worth a shot. She showed me a couple of pictures and I did a little research and a couple hours later had a working prototype for her, which worked flawlessly. Traditionally, gnocchi boards have handles. I hate making handles and they seemed extraneous, so I dropped them in favor of super grippy feet and just laying the board down. This also allowed us to have both hands free to grab more dough, etc. without having to constantly set the board down and pick it up. When we make gnocchi together, we make A LOT at once and try to streamline the process. The boards have evolved into what I feel are the ideal dimensions, and I’ve found what types of wood work best and look the nicest.
Once I had made Chris’ board, she posted a couple of fotos to her online group of us making gnocchi on it. Within a few minutes half a dozen people asked her where she got the board. She explained that her husband had made it and they asked if I they could buy one. I decided to make a few and sell them on Etsy, expecting to maybe sell three or four a month. Within the first month I sold about 40 gnocchi boards!
Enough about pasta boards, I also make other stuff! Woodworking for me is a form of therapy and artistic expression. I really love making beautiful and unique cutting boards as well as small furniture such as coffee tables, end tables and so on. I enjoy making larger items too, but it is very difficult in my small single-car garage shop. For her 40th birthday, I made my wife a solid walnut bedframe and headboard. It’s a queen bed, weighs a couple hundred pounds, and pretty much took over my whole shop for a week. Until I finished bed, I couldn’t make anything else, haha.
When possible, I try to keep my designs simple enough so that the beauty of the wood remains the focal point. To get the most beautiful wood possible, I hand select every single slab directly from a hardwood mill near my home. I mostly buy cutoffs from larger pieces, and everything is rough cut. This allows me to buy stunning wood at very low prices, since I’m doing all the shape work myself. All of the items in my store start out as rough-cut slabs except the ipe, which I generally get as discarded decking material (that would otherwise be landfilled or burned!).
A little about custom orders:
I love it when people contact me and give me a general idea of size and design of something they want, but then let me take over the small details and let my creativity and the wood determine the final product. Something along the lines of, “I’m interested in a cutting board about 20”x12” that is mostly walnut, but with some lighter wood accent strips”. I’ve done this many times and my general rule is that I will make something, and if it’s not what you had in your mind, you don’t need to buy it, I’ll just put it up on the store and wait for someone else to buy it, and I’ll try to make another one (cutting board, etc.) and see if you like that one. Allowing me freedom will ensure a higher quality end product!
I’m wary of taking on highly specific custom orders. It adds a lot of pressure to the process and removes a lot of the creativity and artistic expression for me. Also, I’m self-taught, so there are some things that I’m just not able to do at a standard that I am satisfied with. If you have something custom that you are thinking up, by all means reach out to me, but please know there is a chance I will decline taking on the project if it is not within my direct skill set. Also, custom orders take a while. If we agree on me making something, I’ll try to give a realistic estimate of how long it will take.
Prior to the pandemic, I had been making and selling commissioned works, mostly small furniture, for a few years. I also have a regular day job, so this is all happening on the weekends and evenings. I think that pretty much wraps it up for now. Thanks for reading. If you have any questions at all, please reach out to me. I usually respond within a day.
Best,
Ryan
