Kick the door in!

This past weekend, the Western Ave Studios artist association held the first of two, 2-day open houses for the holidays, the other being next weekend! It was the first time I have opened the shop to the outside world and it was an exciting, busy weekend!

Making room in the work shop was a challenge and required a bit of cleaning and guitars made available for trial, as well as displaying the current guitars still in process.

This was the first chance to see what interest there might be in guitar building classes, and the response was very positive, with several people ready to sign up! I decided to add Uke building classes too, which involves less time and effort than the guitars (and especially fun is the lower price! Gratification sometimes has limits.)

In addition to the dozens of folks whom I have never met, some friends new and old came by!

Rick Drost, songwriter extraordinaire, came by to play some guitars and share some fun with the other visitors! I was happy to have my old friend and co-worker from Brannen Flutes, Mickey Roache, stop by and display his upside down guitar playing skills! I unfortunately, didn't have a lefty for him to play, but he acquitted himself admirably even under those less than perfect conditions.

I was looking for way to put some information on the outside wall for those to shy to come in. Carolyn had this white board with the terms "Urgent! Not Urgent! Vital!" and "Not Vital" left from a previous presentation. So, with a little thought and some colored markers, I created a philosophy for my work!~

As I unpacked my wood yesterday, I realized how much I have and how many different flavors; enough for anyone to find something they like. While the kit building is mostly confined to mahogany and rosewood, custom building allows for a range of woods and design possibilities. Some of these woods;

African and Honduran Mahogany

Indian Rosewood

Macassar Ebony

Curly Mango Wood

Black Walnut

Paldao

Padauk

Ovangkol

Tzalam

Peruvian Walnut

and more...

So I hope to see more friendly faces this weekend both new and old! I'll be open from 12pm-5pm with guitars to try, snacks and maybe a couple short performances. Stop by and don't forget, there happens to be a couple hundred artists also open that I might have forgotten to mention! Great holiday shopping opportunity and sign up now for classes starting in January! See you there!