Cooler Weather!

It was a very hot August for us here in North Texas. With 18 straight days of temperatures reaching over 100 degrees it was hard to work out in the garage. Now that the temps have cooled off a little I've been able to start clearing out my work space and preparing for the busy holiday season. While cleaning out I've started looking at the barrel staves and thinking about some new items to create and add to my listings.

The first was a simple clock. A 2" clock was inserted into the end of a barrel stave. I believe it will look great on desks and shelves. It is about 6" tall and shows the end of the stave. Some future versions may include the strapping.

Another new item is a two hook rack that has the cork hole in the wood and custom strapping added. This was originally requested over the summer as a custom order and I decided to add it to my collection.

One of my largest selling items is the key rack. Buyers seam to love the rugged look of the cast iron pegs and strapping. I expanded on this and combined a coat rack with the key rack. I also added a little hidden shelf the fills in the void left from the curve of the stave. This allows a space to put items like wallets, coins, cell phones, etc. Larger cast iron pegs are used to give plenty of support to hang a coat or purse. The smaller iron pegs are added above them to hang items like keys and still allow access to them if there are larger items hung on the larger pegs. Strapping was added to enhance the look of the barrel stave.