Arts and Culture thrive on Martha’s Vineyard. For years, all sorts of creative minds have found solitude and a place for reflection on the Island, inspired by the gorgeous scenery and relaxed way of life. Authors, painters, sculptors, photographers, dancers, actors, artisans, and filmmakers infuse the Island communities with a tangibly vibrant cultural life.
Handcrafted products can offer higher quality and more attention to detail – but they can give buyers some surprising side benefits as well. 1. Handcrafted Products Are Green. Work done by hand takes less energy than a mass production assembly line, which makes it more environmentally sustainable. This is particularly true if the commercial good is produced overseas and needs to be shipped a very long distance to reach the consumer. 2. Handcrafted Products Are Good for the Job Market Another reason you should feel good about spending your money on hand-crafted products? Doing so creates jobs. One study found that shifting just 10 percent of consumer spending in a particular area to locally owned businesses would create hundreds...
Carrying plywood by yourself is a pain. Here’s a helper that allows you to roll it around instead. Just clamp this caddy to the board’s edge, tip the sheet down onto the wheels and off you go. The caddy will fit plywood that’s 1/2″ to 3/4″ thick. Its sides aren’t glued together—they just slide on bolts. I put 7″ lawn mower wheels on my caddy so I can roll it over an uneven driveway or my yard when I’m unloading plywood from my truck. Large wheels are ideal for a shop floor, too, because they roll easier than small wheels. Of course, you can use wheels of almost any size. To make the caddy, temporarily nail together its three parts,...
SATURDAY, JUNE 30, 2018 Review: 52 Boxes In 52 Weeks, By Matt Kenney 52 Boxes In 52 Weeks, The Taunton Press, $24.95, 224pp, May, 2018Full disclosure: I was given a copy of this book by the publisher for review.This is a wonderful design book by Fine Woodworking senior editor Matt Kenney. It's the result of a challenge he set for himself to practice his design skills: design and build a small box every week for a year.The boxes are largely simple in construction, using a limited set of techniques, since the construction process was not the main point of the exercise. Instead, he explores a wide range of shape, proportion, materials, and decoration.The idea is that like any other skill,...
