On Advertising

When I initially launched this website, put up a bunch of pieces on etsy and Amazon Handmade a few months ago, I assumed correctly that the trick to a business of this type is advertising it correctly. Since that launch until today, I have been running in "Stealth Mode"; everything was in place, but there was no way to find it among the sea of products on etsy et al. THis allowed me to work out some of the kinks of starting up a little business. I feel like I have a decent stock and packing strategy at this point, so I am going to attempt to ratchet up the advertising a bit... Let's see where this goes... 

Welcome to Blade and Branch

Perhaps I will begin where this project began for me:

I wanted to craft myself a pen holder for my desk at my day job so I went out to my shop to take a look around for inspiration. 

I immediately found the treasure trove of walnut wood scraps which I had purchased at a yard sale for a song several months earlier. I drew up a few sketches for the pen holder, but was not particularly feeling the project.

Months earlier again, I had found a piece of wood with an interesting crack in it. I took a plastic inlay material and forced it into the crack. After it had cured I sanded the piece. It was beautiful. I loved the idea, but it could not be scaled due to the scarcity of appropriately cracked wood. 

Instead of working on the pen holder, I wheeled out the table saw and took a piece of walnut wood and routed several random, shallow lines across it's surface. If one is needed for this origin story, this is the eureka moment. Homemade cracks! 

Ever since that moment I have been hard at work on honing the craft and quality of the pieces and dreaming up new shapes, sizes and materials. I am having a blast.

I hope you like what I am doing here. I am always happy to take on custom commissions, what a different size, pattern, or color? Done!

Thanks for taking the time to check out my little project!