People who have no respect for your work...

[Tombo46]

Do any of you find that people just don't appreciate how much time and effort you put in to your work? Basically by treating it like crap...

While it's nothing amazing. I built this bread stand for my shop...



Now within a day of all my staff and my suppliers going "ooooh! that looks nice! did you built it yourself?". I reply "Yes I did. I finished it last night. Quite happy with how it finished up actually!" They then say "Oh really? That's great! Here, let me slam the doors shut by kicking it, Oh and while I'm at it, I might just hit it with things on all those nice smooth corners!". Well maybe they didn't say the last part but you get what I mean...

I get that it's a working shop but you'd think they would treat it with a little more respect.

Does anyone else find this with furniture etc they have made? Do people just not care or is it a case of them really not realising how much effort can go in to building things?

 

[KevM]

That looks fantastic, a really great way of showing off your bread. I'm afraid you hit the nail right on the head with your last point of people not understanding how much effort goes into crafting 'real' things. Most people have lost contact with the 'making' process. Hence in an era of wall to wall cookery shows a survey yesterday pointed out adults in the UK routinely eating a bowl of cereal or biscuits as their evening meal.

But, kudos to you Sir, you made something beautiful, functional and repairable...

Kev

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Swmbo has a guy who goes around after her fixing things that have been forced and generally abused... :roll:

 

[Racers]

Mine does too!

Pete

 

[soulboy]

I once made an occasional table as a wedding present for friends of mine. It was quite simple, but striking, made of Canadian Maple with through tennons, secured with bog oak wedges.
They gave/lent it to their sister & brother-in-law!
chris

 

[foxhunter]

Many people have no idea of the skill and effort that goes into the production of various objects. Many years ago when younger and fitter I had a fairly large garden and loved growing things. I offered to grow plants for sale at the local May Fair. In the process I needed to buy compost, seeds and pots and looked to recover my basic costs and you can imagine how I felt when someone complained at the price saying that all I needed was a bit of dirt and they would grow themselves.
It's the same now, making small boxes for a local charity, again hoping to recover some of the material costs. Difficult when some people think all wood can be bought for a pittance at the local shed.

 

[bogmonster]

This looks like a good thread and I have just started my own grumpy thread so in the mood now

I mainly wood turn. Most people really appreciate my stuff and I get some really nice compliments. However some people really don't get it at all. I sell my stuff at very reasonable prices, maybe way too cheap. However, you still get some numpty complaining about the prices, asking for discounts etc. I think they compare a glued together, mass produced, one of a million bowl from Ikea with a hand crafted, hardwood, decorated, lovingly finished, original one off piece and wonder why one is 3 times more expensive than the other?

Still, when a stranger falls in love with something you have made it is really satisfying. I do sometimes give discounts but only when I want somebody to take ownership, when they clearly don't really have the money. I like to see my stuff going to good homes.

BM

 

[blackrodd]

Well done sir! an excellent way to display all that lovely bread!
I don't know the answer to you're question but a lot of people seem to lack respect of others and their property.
Looking at that bread again, I may have to come to sheffield, and fairly soon by the looks of it!
Regards Rodders

 

[pmagowan]

Looks great! I wish I had a shop like yours near by but you are a bit far from Norn Iron for a loaf of bread. One thing I would say is that it may be easier to build in protection for the abuse it will recieve than to change human nature.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

Don't forget that when you've made a piece the value you hold it in is always far greater than someone else. They have nothing invested in it and thus see it in a more utilitarian context, especially when its being used to house bread and eggs. I wouldn't be too hard on them. You know its well made and had tlc poured into it and we do now too

And we matter....cos we know the difference

 

[nathandavies]

I make kitchens and sometimes the fit goes over a weekend, the number of people who start using the kitchen during the weekend is unreal, filling unfinished cupboards etc. when we go back to take images we have to allow time to clean the kitchen. these people have spent a lot of money on their kitchens but it's surprising how little they care about their new purchase.
unless you are a maker, I don't think people understand how long things take and how much love and care goes into these items. but I may not appreciate how long their particular area of work takes them.

as has been said though the 1 in 10 who really appreciate what you do makes your day.

nathan

 

[Graham Orm]

Swmbo has a guy who goes around after her fixing things that have been forced and generally abused... :roll:

:lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[pagan warrior]

This makes your blood boil! I had a cabinet making workshop at the rear of a hard ware store. Displayed outside my workshop on my area was one of several gothic style walnut coffee tables I had designed/built. This clown walks by and clumps it with a gas bottle and carries on walking into the shop...I shout out Oi!!! that'll be £ 295 please or £25 whichever you like! He turns round and says what for? I said for the coffee table. You've just damaged it so you can either buy it or pay me £25 to repair the damage. He says, I thought this was a public walkway? A public f*ckin' walkway? I said, you just cut across my workshop area clumping a piece of bespoke furniture without the curtesy of stopping I suggest you make a payment choice fairly sharpish as I'm starting to get the 'Ump! With that he took £25 out of his wallet and sheepishly walked off. Some people have no respect for something lovingly crafted or the time and the skill involved. These types have probably never had anything other than flat pack crap.
Another fine example was when I was selling some turned bowls at an arty farty gallery. I happened to visit there a week after only to find that my beautiful burr oak bowls were filled with someone else's arts and crafts christmas bauble tat crap! When I asked as to why my works of art were being used as a prop for someone else's stuff the woman in the gallery said, well you can still see the bowls. Yeah, only just but nobody's going to see the detail, price or that they are an item for sale I replied. She relocated the tat after I placed them in a disorganised pile away from my bowls. Some people just can't appreciate the beauty of wood. Fortunately there a lot that can.
Anyway...apologies for the rant, but I sympathize with my fellow craftsmen who encounter this sort of stuff.

 

[Harry 48]

The way people look at our work is if you made it yourself it cost you nothing a friend of SWMBO admiring a large fruit bowl asked how much it cost. O my husband made it, would he make me one .Thinking I'll do her a favour I said I would make one for twenty pounds you'd have thought ide slapped her face. SWMBO got on my case I said you buy the blank twenty pounds I'll make it for nothing not much was said after that

 

[Jinx]

I recently made a pen - my first thing ever, it wasn't that good but it was my first - I showed SWMBO and she did her best to look impressed, then my son said. let me have a look and she threw it too him!! I said (amused though) hang on you cannot go throwing it around - she then took time to show it to everyone who was remotely interested. It has become a joke now in my house now if I make anything someone will say, chuck it here lets have a look...

My son popped in today and I said, 'I have finished the utility room now and it looks great', he walked into the conservatory and said, 'Yeah you have done a great job'. I pointed out he misheard and I had said Utility and I had done nothing to the conservatory, so he sheepishly looked at the utility and said that's looks great too - somehow the conviction was not there ha ha.

I guess I appreciate my efforts the most as only I know how much wood I destroyed before I produced something passable. jinx

 

[ColeyS1]

I recently made a pen - my first thing ever, it wasn't that good but it was my first - I showed SWMBO and she did her best to look impressed, then my son said. let me have a look and she threw it too him!! I said (amused though) hang on you cannot go throwing it around - she then took time to show it to everyone who was remotely interested. It has become a joke now in my house now if I make anything someone will say, chuck it here lets have a look...

My son popped in today and I said, 'I have finished the utility room now and it looks great', he walked into the conservatory and said, 'Yeah you have done a great job'. I pointed out he misheard and I had said Utility and I had done nothing to the conservatory, so he sheepishly looked at the utility and said that's looks great too - somehow the conviction was not there ha ha.

I guess I appreciate my efforts the most as only I know how much wood I destroyed before I produced something passable. jinx

There's is where the scene from crocodile Dundee comes to mind- he drops an egg on the floor then last minute swaps it so the detective gets to eat the egg covered in mess. Its probably childish to suggest it but I'd drop his food on the floor and pick it up and serve it to him . He might appreciate it more the next time he's not picking dirt off his plate- not suggesting your floors dirty :lol:

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

 

[richarnold]

Talking of no respect, some of you may remember this little job I took on for a local charity. It took quite a number of hours to make. and I never charged them for anything. I dropped it of to one of there members about six months ago. did I ever here anything from them?, not a bloody thing :roll:

 

[MARK.B.]

Jinx try making a knife :shock: and see if they say chuck it here :wink:

 

[Graham Orm]

I recently caught SWMBO carrying this easel out of the door. I made it for the kids when they were small. She was taking it to give to a friend who has little ones. "Ours don't use it any more" was her response to my apoplectic fit. We have a daughter soon to be married who is likely to have children I have been waiting for the day I can deliver it.

 

[marku]

Hi

I finished building this horse drawn dray earlier in the year, the guy I built it for insisted the top was steel framed and not wood as it wouldn't last otherwise because of the damage the passengers do.

Apparently most of the damage is done by pushchairs being lifted over the sides and bashed into it.

He repaints every 6 months.

Mark