AlexSutula

The best thing you can to for your market (woodworkers) is to not so much show "what a woodworker really does" But, increase the demand for custom-made furniture. The people that demand custom-made furniture are not woodworkers, they are home-owners or aspiring home-owners. A "how-to" show on DIY will only attract woodworkers, men, and a few women. To appeal to women (who account for 70% of my clients) and the home-owner demographic, a show on HGTV will be most successful.

I have actually emailed my show format idea a few months ago to HGTV. The format should be similar to Color Splash or any other show where an interior designer goes into a house and redesigns a space. Typically these shows emphasize doing this at the lowest cost possible. This results in the designer designing a "custom" table, built by a carpenter or buying crap at Ikea. Carpenters are far from furniture makers. Add a furniture maker to the cast. Concentrate for 6-9 minutes on a half hour show or 10-15 minutes for 1 hour on the woodworker, what he does and how he does it. This way you can be informative with out getting up in the non-woodworkers grill. And gain appreciation from the consumer.

Sometimes I think that people looking to buy furniture don't even consider about getting a custom piece of furniture made. I really don't think it even occurs to them. We live in a disposable society, and care very little about quality and products built by skilled craftsmen. People will spend $80,000 to drive a BMW for 5 years, only to get rid of it for the latest model, all the while they drag their feet when I quote a coffee table for $1,000 that will outlive them 3 times over. The show should try to reverse this mentality. Rather than emphasizing bang-for-your-buck, the show should emphasize quality, tradition, passion, design, skill, and benefits of getting tailor-made furniture.

A couple anecdotes.

1. I let a client borrow a 1/8 round-over bit so he could finish the job himself. After a couple emails, a phone call, and 4 months I got it back. And the SOB didn't even use it.

2. Let a couple contracting friends of mine borrow several rasps and files, a book on crown molding, a protractor, and a files brush I just bought. That was 3 months ago, and they still haven't been returned.

You wouldn't think borrowing tools would be that big of a problem. But jesus christ, it always is.

the copper is just glued to the substrate with gorilla glue (its what I had lying around), in the future i will use a slow setting epoxy. I am not sure the gauge of the copper but i got it from a guy who was repairing his roof and had just enough left over to do this table. Unfortunately i have not had the cash so buy the sheet of copper i need for the other tables. Hopefully in 2 or 3 months time i will have the other tables completed.