Waiting List Information

All my woodwork is custom made, after you place your order. Wait times vary depending on my workload and the intricacy of the item you order - anywhere from two weeks to several months. Please contact me before placing your order if you have any questions. Thanks!

Featured Project

I like to feature a recent project below. If you want to see more, check out my Bowls and Boxes, Pens, Gifts, Toys, and Home Decor pages.

Monday, June 30, 2008

Priest Crafts

Not to be confused with priestcrafts, Priest Crafts is a name I jokingly contemplated for my business when a lot of my stuff was selling for use as gifts for clergy.
My brother-in-law was recently called as an LDS Bishop - the equivalent of a priest or a pastor in a Catholic or Protestant congregation, only unpaid. I made this chess bishop for him as a gag gift for Christmas - about 6" high, with felt base, he loves it and keeps it on his desk. See my Toys page for more.
And what clergyman doesn't need a nice wood bowl on his desk for candy for the unlucky ones who are stuck sitting on the other side?
And a good wood pen is a must, of course...

So yeah, I toyed with the name Priest Crafts, but in the end settled for something that was a little less of a lightening rod. And really, the bowl and pen are a must for any desk-bound worker, don't you think?

Monday, June 16, 2008

A Bowl of Pens


I've been experimenting with different pen forms for my slimline pens, with different kinds of woods, and different finishes, and several styles of each are shown here. To see the individual pens, see my Pens page. For more bowls, see my Bowls page. I'm trying to build up inventory for a booth in a craft fair this fall - once I get finished turning the pen kits I've got on hand, I'll be making a chess set, a chess board, some shelves, stools, benches, and stuff like that, so don't get too down that all you've seen for a while are my pens.

From top to bottom, the pens are from box elder burl, lignum vitae, bloodwood, maple, purpleheart, oregon myrtlewood, and another purpleheart. The Bowl is ambrosia maple.

Incidentally, I've also lowered my prices - for the basic 24k gold twist pen with base price wood, you're looking at only $25.00. A bowl like that shown is $24.00.

Monday, June 9, 2008

Building Future Woodworkers

Don't miss my new postings - a Trophy Shelf, Custom Crown Molding Shelf, and Purpleheart Slimline Twist Pen.

My boys have all been wanting to use my tools. When the brush-off "when you're older" became ineffective, I told them that if they want to use my tools, they have to read a book about how to use it and pass a safety test and then they can. Well, my 9-yr old read the band saw book and then the lathe book in record time. His first bandsaw project was a jet out of a leftover piece of aromatic cedar:He's learning to use the lathe now, one skill at a time. Here's his spindle - alternating beads, grooves, and coves:
My 7-year old has been reading the band saw book, and in the mean time has been working on his nailing skills. While I was turning my purpleheart bowl, he made this box:After he finished, he took it inside and wrote on it: "By Matt Staten. It was hard, frustrating, and fun. Helped by: His dad."

Can't help but feel proud of my awesome boys. My 4-year old and 2-year old will one day have projects to post too, but for now they're more into smashing things with the hammers than assembling them. Good thing for the scrap box! Way to go future woodworkers!

Company Profile

Hand-made classic wood toys, gifts, pens, furniture, kitchenware, and more, all lead free, most made from renewable wood resources, and all made in small-town USA. If there's something you're looking for, let me know and I'll let you know if I can do it, how much it will cost, and how long it will take. Some of my projects have included bunk-beds, shelves, frames in standard and custom sizes, coat racks, benches, rubber band guns, hand-turned bowls, segmented salad bowls, chess pieces, magic wands - Harry Potter type, etc.