Down Town Manchester “HOLIDAY MARKET”
December 1, 8, 15, 22

We will be demonstrating in the Cotton Tenant Building just off Puddle Dock.
Shop artisan crafts and baked goods at the Downtown Manchester Holiday Market! During the first 4 Thursdays in
December, the will be transformed into a festive holiday market featuring local vendors from
around the state. Make a dent in your holiday shopping lists while finding something special for yourself! Moms & Dads – be sure to bring the kids to get their photos taken with on any market day!

www.intownmanchester.com/pdf/downtown-manchester-holiday-market.PDF

and

Saturday and Sunday, December 3-4, 10-11, & 17-18, 2011
Saturdays from 5:00pm-9:00pm & Sundays from 4:00pm-8:00pm

Stroll through life in a simpler time as 350 years of American history, winter traditions, and holiday celebrations unfolds around you in New Hampshire’s oldest waterfront neighborhood.

• Historic houses from four centuries decorated in period regalia
• Hundreds of candles lighting the lanes and landscape
• Gingerbread house contest and display.
• Live music and holiday entertainment for all ages
• Horse-drawn carriage rides
• Holiday decoration demonstrations
• Traditional barrel making demonstrations
• 18th century holiday hearth cooking
• Tinsmith demonstrations
• …and so much more!

We will be selling our products at the Holiday Market and the Candlelight Stroll, plus we will be doing a demonstration at the Candlelight Stroll. Come and look for us in the Cotton Tenant Building right off the Puddle Dock Area.

Christmas 2011 — Birth of a New Tradition. As the holidays approach, the giant Asian factories are kicking into high gear to provide Americans with monstrous piles of cheaply produced goods — merchandise that has been produced at the expense of American labor. This year will be different. This year Americans will give the gift of genuine concern for other Americans. There is no longer an excuse that, at gift-giving time, nothing can be found that is produced by American hands. Yes there is! It’s time to think outside the box, people. Who says a gift needs to fit in a shirt box, wrapped in Chinese produced wrapping paper? Everyone — yes EVERYONE gets their hair cut. How about gift certificates from your local American hair salon or barber? Gym membership? It’s appropriate for all ages who are thinking about some health improvement. Who wouldn’t appreciate getting their car detailed? Small, American-owned detail shops and car washes would love to sell you a gift certificate or a book of gift certificates. Are you one of those extravagant givers who think nothing of plonking down the Benjamines on a Chinese made flat-screen? Perhaps that grateful gift receiver would like his driveway sealed, or lawn mowed for the summer, or driveway plowed all winter, or games at the local golf course. There are a bazillion owner-run restaurants — all offering gift certificates. And, if your intended isn’t the fancy eatery sort, what about a half-dozen breakfasts at the local breakfast joint. Remember, folks this isn’t about big National chains — this is about supporting your home town Americans with their financial lives on the line to keep their doors open. How many people couldn’t use an oil change for their car, truck or motorcycle, done at a shop run by the American working guy? Thinking about a heartfelt gift for mom? Mom would LOVE the services of a local cleaning lady for a day. My computer could use a tune-up, and I KNOW I can find some young guy who is struggling to get his repair business up and running. OK, you were looking for something more personal. Local crafts people spin their own wool and knit them into scarves. They make jewelry, and pottery and beautiful wooden boxes. Plan your holiday outings at local, owner-operated restaurants and leave your server a nice tip. And, how about going out to see a play or ballet at your hometown theater. Musicians need love too, so find a venue showcasing local bands. Honestly, people, do you REALLY need to buy another ten thousand Chinese lights for the house? When you buy a five dollar string of light, about fifty cents stays in the community. If you have those kinds of bucks to burn, leave the mailman, trash guy or babysitter a nice BIG tip. You see, Christmas is no longer about draining American pockets so that China can build another glittering city. Christmas is now about caring about US, encouraging American small businesses to keep plugging away to follow their dreams. And, when we care about other Americans, we care about our communities, and the benefits come back to us in ways we couldn’t imagine. THIS is the new American Christmas tradition. Forward this to everyone on your mailing list — post it to discussion groups — throw up a post on Craigslist in the Rants and Raves section in your city — send it to the editor of your local paper and radio stations, and TV news departments. This is a revolution of caring about each other, and isn’t that what Christmas is about?

Strawbery Banke Museum

Well, who could ask for more. It’s fall in New England, Portsmouth, New Hampshire to be precise. It’s early Saturday morning and the temperature is in the mid forties. The forecast is for sun, temperature 80-85 degrees with a breeze. We arrived at 8:10am after having 3 hours of sleep the night before. You see we were up until 1:00am working on last minute details for the Strawbery Banke “Fall Festival”.   Gregg Brackett from Strawbery Banke contacted us and asked if we would like to participate. We were honored that the Strawbery Banke organization deemed us worthy of such an event. There was even to be a chilly cook off in conjunction with Prescott Park.

As you can see from the photographs all went well. A very large crowd was expected, especially for the chilly. There was a huge interest in our Antique Pine furniture pieces as well as my wife Maria’s wonderful trivets (made from shop scrap lumber). God bless her, she polished these trivets with butcher block wax and sand paper, starting at 100 grit and ending with 2,000 grit (no that’s not a typo). The shine was such that you could almost see your reflection, the feel was like silk. All the customers wanted to do was to fondle the trivets all day long. We even managed to sell a few.  At $45.00 for an 8″ x8″x 1″ thick, I thought they were a steal. I guess the economic times are hard everywhere. I can however say that, somewhere in England there is one of our trivets that will be given as a gift this Christmas. The day ended well, we gave out lots of business cards and pens. We spoke to many people looking to do work in the near future. Who could resist spending a beautiful fall day at such an historic site as the Strawbery Banke Museum.

Our next event will be in Manchester, NH, just up the street from our shop at 1000 Elm Street, Brady Sullivan Plaza. This will be a Christmas Fair organized by “In Town Manchester”.  So for every Saturday in the month of December 2011  you will find us at a booth (I know not where, yet) selling our wares. See you in Manchester,NH.

Saturday, October 8th
10:00 am–5:00 pm
New Hampshire Fall Festival – Named Best of NH Editor’s Pick for Best New Festival – & Prescott Park Chili Cook-Off

Celebrate harvest time with Strawbery Banke’s fourth annual New Hampshire Fall Festival. Experience a traditional New England country fair complete with demonstrations from craftspeople, heritage breed and farm animal exhibits, farm animal and livestock demonstrations, special autumn activities in the Children’s Garden, presentations on heirloom seeds, canning and food preservation talks, fiber arts, demonstrations and exhibits on historic crafts and industries, coopering, harvest-themed crafts in the Family Discovery Center, garden tours and demonstrations. NEW this year — morning and afternoon performances of “Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie” (the story of two teenagers traveling West with their families in 1847), for ages 6 and up, presented by Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine. Two Incredible Festivals in One – Back by popular demand, the Prescott Park Chili Cook-Off will again be held in conjunction with Strawbery Banke Museum’s New Hampshire Fall Festival. The Chili Cook-Off presents more than a dozen restaurants from the Seacoast and beyond who serve up their best chili in decorated booths for attendees to sample. Come and enjoy the generous samplings restaurants offer and experience one of the best Chili Cook-Offs around! The Chili Festival will be also offering the opportunity to compliment your chili tasting with one of Redhook’s fine crafted and refreshing beers! Two great festivals in one unbeatable location for one admission price: $15 for adults, $6 for youths (12 and under).StrawberyBankeMuseum and Prescott Park Arts Festival members are FREE.

The Great Bay Recycled Art Show was an absolute winner. We met many new people and possibly new customers. We learned tips on showing at shows and which shows to attend. All in all it was a great (no pun intended) show. Hope to be invited back next year.

Click to view slideshow.

Well the day delivery day is upon us at last. We were at the shop until 12:30 AM yesterday adding final touches and finishes. This morning we were back dusting and polishing, before loading up the truck.  After making a wrong turn, we finally arrived at the Great Bay Conservation Center in Greenland, NH.  Unloading and set up took approximately one hour (my wife likes things just right and in their proper place ).

To all of our readers this is a friendly reminder that the “Gala Reception” is open to exhibitors and the public on Friday, April 29, 2011, from 6:30-8:30 PM. The show and sale, in the Conservation Center on the grounds of the Great Bay Discovery Center, will begin on Friday evening at the reception. The exhibit will be open Saturday, April 30, and Sunday, May 1, from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM at the Hugh Gregg Coastal Conservation Center on the grounds of the Great Bay Discovery Center in Greenland, NH.  Admission to the show and the Centers is free.

Below are a few of the pictures from the set up day, hopefully whetting your appetite to come out and see us. Remember this is a fundraiser also and a portion of All sales goes to the Great Bay Stewardship

Click to view slideshow.

The Great Bay Recycled Art Show

]]> http://nhschreiner.wordpress.com/2011/04/28/the-great-bay-recycled-art-show/feed/ 0 nhschreiner DSC_0562 http://nhschreiner.wordpress.com/2011/04/14/event-calendarapril-thru-june/ http://nhschreiner.wordpress.com/2011/04/14/event-calendarapril-thru-june/#comments Thu, 14 Apr 2011 15:30:23 +0000 nhschreiner http://nhschreiner.wordpress.com/?p=200 ]]> ********************April -May*********************

NH Accents has just been invited to participate in two separate events. The first event is the “Sixth Annual Great Bay Art show” in support of the Great Bay Stewards. This year’s show is entitled “Art of Great Bay In a Whole New Way” Re-Imagined Art and Fine Crafts. The theme is a focus on art containing re-purposed materials. NH Accents will be showcasing our latest “Pub Table” project, as well as several Early American “Candle Lanterns” and “Document Box” tables. All of these items were made using our supply of Pandora Factory Antique Long Leaf Pine and White Pine lumber. The exhibition will be held in the Hugh Gregg Coastal Conservation Center (HGCCC) at the Great Bay Discovery Center in Greenland, NH, from April 29 -May 1,2011.

For additional information on directions and hours go to http://www.greatbaystewards.org/

********************June*********************

The second invitation was to participate in the 7th Annual “Palace Theatre Kitchen Tour”. The tour will take place on June 5, 2011 from 10am – 4pm. This will be NH Accents Fine Crafts second kitchen selected to be in the tour in the last three years. Our gracious home owners, Mr. & Mrs. Castaldo have opened there entire home for this tour. NH Accents has completed many projects over the past years in this beautiful home in Bedford, NH. We have GC’d a complete kitchen remodel, a Master Bathroom remodel where we installed all the cabinets and anything else that came our way. There was a “Home Office” renovation, multiple crown moulding installations, as well as curved wainscot for the main staircase. There was even a complete Sun room make over with new windows, doors, bead board wainscot and bead board ceiling.

Come and join us on June 5, 2011 for the tour of this spectacular house and the many other magnificent homes on the tour. if you need additional information or would like to purchase tickets go to http://www.palacetheatre.org/event-calendar.aspx?event=423&category=ALL

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It has come to my attention that several viewers were not aware that you may subscribe to the “Accent on Woodworking” blog and receive automatic notification of updates on our projects and current events. Just click on the “Email Subscriptions” link to the right. Several readers have had questions about the posts. Comments may be submitted by clicking on the “Leave a Comment” at the end of a post.

Finally construction is complete. After a few revisions and re-dos on the main pedestal parts I have finally completed the assembly.  See what happens when creativity and schedules collide?  Creativity can sometimes win.  I didn’t like the way the top section of the pedestal turned out. The pedestal is taller or longer than my current lathe will allow, so I had to build the pedestal in sections.  I did not like the proportions of the upper section to the other sections of the pedestal.

This was totally my own doing.  I was in a hurry to complete this project and went straight to the lathe with the glued up blanks.  Instead, I should have laid out my plan of attack and completed a full size drawing.  I guess I  am falling into a trap of sorts, due to the economy. Everyone wants work done faster and cheaper these days, so we try and cut corners to make ends meet.  So back to the drawing board I had to go and re-think the upper section.  Now that it is complete,  I believe rebuilding the top section was justified.

With the pedestal assembled I turned my attention to the 36″ diameter top.  I had already rough cut the boards and set them aside.  These boards have been allowed to acclimate to the shops environment for several weeks now.  I joined several boards together to make up the width for the top.  After gluing up and cutting the blank into a circle on my band saw, I addressed the final edge treatment.  I wanted the edge to be smooth but not ornate, so I eased the upper edge slightly and rounded over the lower edge with a 1/4″ beading bit.  As you can see from the photos, there are several dovetail patches or “Dutchmen” as they are called.  Dutchman are patches or repairs to a surface to hide blemishes.  Dovetail Dutchman have traditionally been used to keep two adjoining boards together.  In this top they are only a 1/4″ deep and hide the existing holes  left over from drilling into the old beams at some point in their former life.

Now that all the construction is complete I have applied a coat of diluted shellac to reduce the checking as the w00d continues to dry.  Even lumber 200+ years old continues to dry out when you expose previously interior wood surfaces to the atmosphere.  Over the next couple of days, maybe weeks, I will make up color samples for the final finish.  My gut is telling me to just finish sand the table and apply a couple coats of dark paste wax.  We shall see who wins.Click to view slideshow.

I recently viewed a video on Xtranormal.com (a YouTube type site) that was created to depict how some people view “custom woodworkers”.  In over 14 years of  doing business as NH Accents Fine Crafts, I must admit that a few potential clients have shared this view of what we “custom woodworkers” do.  I have in the past and continue to educate potential clients about producing custom items and their costs.  Custom woodworkers wear many hats. They are designers, drafters, educational ambassadors and last but not least craftsman or craftswomen.  We work many long and hard hours at our trade, continuously educating ourselves to do better work, faster and less expensively.  It has been my good luck to have many customers who truly appreciate my efforts in their projects.  I personally have been in the woodworking field for over 35 years, with my wife at my side.  I continue to strive for excellence and  quality in my work, even in this current economy of planned obsolescence.   What we as woodworkers do is take pride in our craft, using our skills, education, experience and talent to produce the best possible products.

The link is below is for you to view and use it as an educational tool.

www.xtranormal.com/watch/7582361/