We are proud to announce a new and attractive business partnership. Hardwood Artisans is getting into art and framing – well sort of. We have partnered up with an art and framing gallery in Alexandria, Virginia to keep our showroom walls fresh and beautiful. The company is Broadway Galleries and they have just as much to offer as we do on a slightly smaller scale.
You may notice a tent set up in the parking lot of our Woodbridge shop during the Lemonade Social this July 16th. Hardwood Artisans will be host to a charity called Friends of Homeless Animals (FOHA) at our Lemonade Social on July 16th. FOHA is a non-profit no-kill animal shelter located in Northern Virginia. They have been providing rehabilitation, rescue, medical care, and adoption services since 1972. FOHA rescues dogs and cats from abusive situations, death row at animal shelters, or from owners who can no longer provide care for their pets. They will have a tent set up in the parking lot of our Woodbridge shop during the Lemonade Social, so you will be able to ask FOHA volunteers questions about their cause.
FOHA’s rescue vehicle is on its last legs and they’re trying to raise money for a new one. They use this vehicle to transport dogs and cats from kill shelters. It’s also the main way they gather food and supplies. This is where we (and you!) come in hand! Hardwood Artisans is hoping to help raise money during our Lemonade Social so FOHA can replace their current transport van. We are going to have a silent auction from 10am to 3pm with two items – a Hillgren Jewelry box and a square Plant Stand.
This is a great opportunity to learn more about volunteering, donations, and possibly about adopting one of the cute animals they have rescued.
Our Marketing Director, Julianne Yurek has been personally involved with FOHA, from participating as a volunteer at some of their events to adopting two dogs from them. We’re really excited to be able to help out and can’t wait to see how much money we raise for their cause!
For more information on FOHA or to look at the rest of the adorable animals they have up for adoption, visit their website at www.foha.org. If you want more details on the Lemonade Social, visit our website http://hardwoodartisans.com/lemonade.asp
We are excited about our upcoming Lemonade Social and looking forward to seeing all of you there. We are working hard making a gift to give you at the Lemonade Social. This year, the owners have designed a special trivet we think you will enjoy. The best part about the trivet is that it uses up scrap wood which saves wood from being wasted. The project begins with a can full of scrap wood. Our scrap wood comes from projects which used larger pieces of wood. If you look closely enough at this photo you can see pieces of wood that were used to make drawers:
Scrap Wood
There are a lot of tree huggers here at Hardwood Artisans, and we try as hard as we can to reduce waste and energy. Have you ever seen our striped Suzy Cubes? They are made of scrap wood as well.
Here is a walk through on how the trivets are made, at the Lemonade Social you can see it happen right in front of you. You can even take home the one you watched being made!
It all starts with one of our talented craftsmen. He or she places a piece of scrap wood onto our CNC router. CNC stands for Computer Numerically Controlled. You can learn more about them here. The machine makes cuts into the wood just the right size of the trivet, as well as the holes in the trivet. Here is an image of one of our craftsmen with the piece of wood. He will place it onto the orange machine right behind him:
Craftsman picking out the right piece of scrap wood to place on the CNC router behind him
The piece of wood comes out with the proper holes in it, as well as the shape cut out.
When it comes out of the CNC router it looks like this
The craftsman will then bring it over to an area set up with a drill bit. He will run the drill bit along the edge where the trivet has been cut. This cuts it free from the rest of the wood and rounds the edges over, making them smooth. We built a box overtop the drill bit to ensure the proper height for rounding the edges of the trivet, it looks just like this:
Cutting the trivet from the block of wood and rounding the edges
The trivet will get sanded down and will be ready for you to take home and use! Join us for the Lemonade Social, Saturday and Sunday June 26th and 27th and see the process for yourself! We are planning to make about 400 trivets and staying busy doing it! Here are a few we have already done:
The trivets we have compeleted thus far, only 350 more to go!
For more information about the Lemonade Social click here. We hope to see you there!
This past weekend was our 3rd Annual Lemonade Social, and it was such a treat to see so many of our customers. Everyone seemed to enjoy the event from the cookies to the wide selection of floor models we were able to offer, but the two biggest standouts were our featured items: the Essentials Collection and the finished pool table.
We had folks breaking the balls left and right and the cracks of kissing balls could be heard throughout the duration of the social. Folks really fell in love with the new pool tables, with many approving of the beautiful but not visually heavy design. With such excitement surrounding the pool table, Curt was inspired to make a smaller model to put in a showroom soon. We’ll keep you updated!
Many social attendees also fell for our Essentials Collection. No matter the room—bedroom, office or dining—the Essentials Collection is a great deal and was just what many folks were hoping to find in this economy—a fabulous product at an extremely affordable price. Kevin, our delivery manager, said half a dozen new Essentials rooms found forever homes in the DC metro area this weekend alone. Will yours be next?
Every year at our annual Lemonade Social, we introduce a new product. Last year, the Linnaea Collection made its debut. This year, we are introducing our new pool tables.
The fact is, like with most highly specialized furniture, there are a lot of pool table options out there. Some are even quite expensive, but virtually none of them are built well. So for the past few months, Hardwood Artisans has been on a mission to build a better pool table. It started out with a lot of research. Mainly we had to find a supplier for the best quality pool table slate, which proved to be quite challenging. Finally though, we’ve gotten started on the actual construction. Here are some pictures from the first phase.
We’ll put some more pictures up each day, so keep checking back. And to see the finished product, come to our workshop on Saturday, June 27th to see the real thing and challenge our expert to a game.