Arizona silhouette Sold!

I want to announce the sale of Arizona Silhouette to a leader in the pen making industry Classic Nib. Niels & Debbie have successfully operated Classic Nib for over six years and with the addition of the wide variety of products from Arizona Silhouette will continue to serve the needs of pen makers’ for years to come.

The Arizona Silhouette family Barry, Lenora, Michael, Cole and Susan all wish Niels and Debbie the best for the future!

PS- I will let everyone know what I am up to shortly – stay tuned!

Great Week at Marc Adams School

Pen Making Class

It was a wonderful week with nothing to do except make pens and have fun!  All of us wore masks at all times, we had dividers between lathes and we were aware of our surroundings. Plenty of pens were made, new friendships were formed and best of all we were safe! I want to thank all my friends who came to the classes and I look forward to seeing you next year!  Stay safe – wear a mask and Happy Turning – Barry

Marc Adams Bangle Class – Successful!!

Bangles & More!

“Weekend at Marc’s” – With all that is going on in the world with

Bangle Class at Work

COVID-19 and life’s other issues, it was FANTASTIC to get away and not watch television or listen to the radio.  All I had to do was to make bangle bracelets with my new friends and boy did we make bangles!  We all wore masks and did the responsible things we had to in order to be safe and in spite of wearing a mask we talked and laughed and had FUN!  So the take away for me was it was not hard to wear a mask all day and teach in order to be safe and continue to do what I love to do!  I am looking forward to this coming week long class with my friends!

Father & Son

Happy Turning- Barry

Teaching At Marc Adams Woodworking School

Supplies For Class

It is a 12 hour drive to get  to the school in Franklin, IN. and I am just a short distance from reaching the school to teach two classes. A weekend Bangle Making Class and then a week long Pen Making class.  As you can see my car (an expedition) is jammed with bangles, pen kits, stabilization chambers, Cactus Juice (thanks Curtis), pen blanks, CA Glue and supplies to last the the 7 days.  This will be the 8th year I will be teaching for this great school.  In spite of the COVID-19 issue, the class is 80% full and we are taking all the necessary precautions to ensure everyone’s safety.  I am looking forward to FINALLY getting out of my house to have some fun with my friends at the school.

I will keep everyone apprised as the week moves forward.  But for now I have another 3 hours to go so I am heading out to have some FUN!!  Happy Turning – Barry

Watch Part Blanks Arrive from Australia!

Mik Lawrence Blanks

In early April I ordered Mik Lawrence’s watch part blanks and he shipped them on April 15th.  By that time, the Covid-19 pandemic was taking its toll on everything worldwide and so our blanks sat at the airport in Melbourne Australia for weeks not being able to catch a flight to the USA.  Finally on June 10, seven (7) weeks later, we received them. I was so glad to see them I posted them on Facebook and within 24 hours they were all gone!

Luckily Mik had sent me more blanks the day I received the last ones. I just got them today so, as promised, my blog followers are the first to see these really great pen blanks.  I can tell you from experience, these sell FAST at my craft shows!  My customers love them and so will yours!

Happy Turning – Barry

Woodworking Show Shipping Boxes Finally Arrive Home

AZ Shipping Crates It has been over 12 days since we were informed that the Woodworking Shows were shut down.
It has taken that long for our shipping boxes to get returned by the trucking company.  We received them today, and welcomed them back.  They have over 4,000 pounds of pen kits and pen blanks stored inside and we are diligently removing the products to restock the website.

To celebrate their arrival, we are offering a ten percent (10%) discount on everything in the Arizona Silhouette store to our blog members starting  March 24, 2020, and running through March 31, 2020.

Upon checkout use the code AZBLOG-20 in order to receive the discount.

Remember to stay safe, and have fun in the shop while you can!

– Barry

Grand Central Wrap Up – Part 1

2019 GCT Booth

Grand Central Holiday Fair 2019 Results

Since Thanksgiving was so late into the month of November in 2019, there were six less selling days than in 2018.  Those are days, and revenue, that you cannot make up unless you sell more pens than the previous year.  When comparing the actual dates from 2018 to 2019 we did sell more pens for the same number of days in 2018.   The average number of pens per day increased to 25 per day versus 22 per day. We sold 900 total pens in 2019, but 945 in 2018.  Since we didn’t have those 6 extra days, we came up short. Better per day sales, but less total sales. If we had those extra 6 days we could have anticipated selling about 150 more pens!

What were some of the causes for the “per day” sales increase?  I will discuss this in a later post – stay tuned!