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Time to Retire

I have always been so very proud of Fishers Laser Carvers. I love the web site and all of the wonderful people who have patronized my efforts. I have made thousands of items and some were pretty good, if I do say so myself. However, the past year health issues have become a problem. After much struggle, I have come to the unfortunate decision to close Fishers Laser Carvers. My age combined with my deteriorating, arthritic back has made keeping up with work on a full time basis impossible. I have decided to retire. I am sure I will always be working wood and making boxes in some form or another and I have other interests to pursue as well as I am able. Thank you for allowing me to serve you. – George

One step at a time

My rehabilitation is going very slowly. I am continuing to have back problems which inhibits much exercise. I had hoped to return by April 1st but I am now thinking May 1st. It is hard to mill much lumber when it is a chore just getting up and down stairs. It is becoming obvious to me that many changes are going to need to be made if I am to continue. The three disk fusion and steel plate in my neck limits my ability to move. We keep hoping the spinal compression will return to normal but as of today it has not. I have been staying busy with new fonts and some new graphics I am anxious to see on the work. In the meantime I will keep plugging along, one step at a time.

A New Year

The holidays have come and gone. The decorations are taken down, the ball has dropped and 2015 has faded into past. Few years in my life have been as difficult as 2015. I must admit I was not sorry to see 2015 go. I spent the last two months of the year by my mother’s bedside. She passed away on December 23rd. I do not have the words to express my profound sadness and great sense of loss. Mourning combined with recovering from the spinal surgery has left me weak as a kitten. I can barely lift a gallon of milk let alone my spirits.

The good news is I have been cleared to begin physical therapy and the process of rebuilding my health. I really underestimated at my age how fast arm and leg strength can just go away. I have responded to many people with the answer that I could not tell “if” or “when” I might return to my work from this forced sabbatical. I can at least declare now that I will return. I hoping to get back in April barring any other life surprises. I like surprises less than I used to and I am looking forward to an uneventful new year.

George

Spinal surgery

Well I am less than a week from surgery to most hopefully repair my spine and return full feeling to my hands and relieve the pain in my left shoulder and arm. This sort of thing seems quite frightening. I suppose it is the builder in me that is is most curious about how all of this accomplished. I am the sort that cannot look at a piece of furniture or a box without thinking “Well how is that accomplished?” “What tools and skills are required?”

For those who share this strange curiosity, here is a film and some information as to what I will be going through. I am uncertain as to the recovery time and the limits which may be placed on my activity. Here is a link to an informational video
http://www.spine-health.com/video/anterior-cervical-discectomy-and-fusion-acdf-video

The waiting is the hardest part

It doesn’t appear as though I will be cutting dovetails anytime soon. Following X-Rays and an MRI, I have been diagnosed with severe cervical spine stenosis and a herniated cervical disc in my neck. This is causing numbness in my hands and pain in my left shoulder and arm. The prescribed treatment is spinal surgery. Basically, to the best of my understanding, they are going to rebuild a disc with bone implants and build up the space between two disc to alleviate pressure on my spinal cord which is causing the problems. Of course until this is accomplished I am at high risk of additional nerve damage and spinal cord damage. The risk of paralysis is present with this kind of surgery but it is far less than risk of paralysis due to a fall or sudden movement of my head that is currently my condition. I have pre op this week and surgery will be scheduled after consultation with my cardiologist (that is another story).

So I am waiting and waiting is the hardest part. I have plenty of powerful although somewhat debilitating drugs on hand and I am fine apart from being bored. I will keep everyone concerned with updates right here. I appreciate your understanding and your thoughts and prayers.

George

The ravages of time

Over the past six years it has been my great honor and pleasure to make thousands of wood plaques and boxes for many wonderful folks.I think for the most part people have been fairly well pleased with my work and that has made me happier than I could begin to explain. I think the only complaint I ever receive is that I am often slow and this is true. Recently, the slowness has been compounded by days when my arm and left hand just won’t cooperate. I figured this was just getting older and the ravages of time.However it seems to be getting worse.

It is with deep regret that I must inform you that I have been unable to work for the past 7-8 days due to pain and numbness in my left arm. I have been diagnosed with cervical spondylosis, a degenerative form of arthritis in my neck. At this point in time, I am unable to say when or if I might return to woodworking. This could be in a couple of weeks or maybe a couple of months or possibly not at all. I continue to be optimistic and pray that I might return to the work I love sooner than later. I just have to be patient and continue therapy. The problem with this condition as it relates to my work is that it is chronic and I might be fine for several weeks and then suffer a set back. This makes it difficult to meet time frames as I just do not know how my strength will hold up. I will keep the web site up and keep all informed as to whether or not I am working.

I am not ready to throw in the towel just yet. I believe my best woodworking is still in me. So for now I consider this a hopefully brief sabbatical and I hope to be covered in saw dust sooner than later.

George

A Fork in the Road

It has been 5 years since I started on this journey. It has been a most enjoyable time. I have made thousands of unique items. Last year alone, my work tripled! This caught me by surprise and come Christmas I was quite overwhelmed. Instead of making 4-5 items a week, I was making 30-40 items a week. Instead of making 12 boxes a year, I made 60 boxes. Now most folks say “That’s great!” or “Congratulations!” and it really is great except for the fact that I can only realistically make 20 items a week. The shop in in shambles and scrap wood and dust are becoming a real issue not to mention a health hazard. So I am constantly falling behind and the waiting list grows longer and longer. These are good problems to have as problems go but I feel bad that I have lost some customers and some orders because I just could not get to everyone on time. My friends and family say “Hire some help!”. I am not sure I could find anyone to work in Chaos the way I do. So what can be done? How can I maintain the hands on personal handmade quality and keep up with increasing demand? There is also the issue of burn out and I am tired and I have neglected some health issues for too long. I have worked 7 days a week for more than 6 months now and I worry that inspiration and passion may wane. Growing pains to be sure.

I have decided that I need to change my ways of working. I have always made each item from start to finish. I need to make multiple items and complete the heavy work (milling, sizing,planning) ahead of time and work from an inventory of plaques and boxes that are ready for assembly, engraving and finishing. In the past I built up an inventory of 10-20 plaques and 6 boxes to prepare for Christmas. These were gone before Thanksgiving and I was back in the catch up game. Perhaps if I have 60-75 plaques and 20 boxes I would be in better shape and would replenish this inventory once a month. This will take some time and much work, not to mention some new tooling,shop layout and storage. Of course this will also mean that special custom sizes will have to be on a “As Available” basis.

Therefore, I have decided to close Fishers Laser Carvers for Remodeling effective May 23rd through September 2nd, 2014. This is to remodel the shop, build an inventory and instal a state of the art dust collection and air filtration system. Tools need sharpened, machines need tune ups and I need a break. This is going to be expensive. I have several new items and new methods in mind. The idea here is not to stop making but expand production. So I am leaving for a little bit. You can still contact me as I will be around. I will return, better able to take care of my wonderful clients in a more timely fashion. In the words of the The Tempos, “I Will See you in September”.

Remembering Marina Keegan

By all accounts, Marina Keegan was an exceptional young woman with a voice for a generation. Just a week after her graduation from Yale she was on her way to Cape Cod when a tragic auto accident stole this precious life away. In a heartbeat, this optimistic and most promising voice of a new generation was silenced. This tragic story was widely covered in the national media including the Times and The New Yorker. For her friends and family this loss is intimate and personal. For all of us the loss of her talent and voice is immeasurable. Her words of hope and optimism are truly inspiring. Maple Plaque

I was contacted by a friend and family of Marina. I was asked to create a remembrance plaque for Marina’s mother. I selected a piece of maple and I decided to frame the plaque with a 3dimensional laser carving of maple leaves. I selected this graphic for two reasons. A very old technique that I have always admired is to reflect a reverence for the tree that provided the wood such as maple leaves as drawer pulls on a maple table or oak leaves or acorns on an oak piece. I will talk more about this in a later entry. The other reason is that blowing leaves are a symbol of fate (leaves in the wind, a leaf on the river, the feather in Forest Gump). It is a charming plaque and my great hope that it may ease those broken hearts that view it.

In August, Marina Keegan’s work Independence opened in New York. The loss will never be over come but Marina’s words and thoughts live on. I never had the pleasure of meeting this young woman but I have read her words and I have engraved her thoughts and I feel very privileged to have done so. This is in memory of a fine young writer and playwright gone too soon.

Peace

George

You can learn more about this remarkable life here.

Proudly made in the United States of America

The 135th Airlift Squadron is one of two flying units of the Maryland Air National Guard. It is based at Warfield Air National Guard Base (Martin State Airport) in Middle River, Maryland. Its parent unit is the 135th Airlift Group. The unit flies the C-27J Spartan.
The 135th Airlift Squadron was organized as the 135th Air Resupply Squadron on September 10, 1955 as part of the 135th Air Resupply Group (now the 135th Airlift Group). When it was organized, it was one of a handful of Air National Guard units nationwide tasked with what was at the time called the air commando mission, which included covert infiltration, resupply and exfiltration of special operations troops. It remained a special operations-type unit until 1971, when it was reorganized as a tactical air support unit. In this role, it was tasked with providing Forward Air Controllers to direct air strikes in support of troops on the ground. In 1977 it was again reorganized, this time as a tactical airlift unit. The 135th Airlift Group was inactivated for two brief periods: 1958-1962, during which time the 135th Airlift Squadron continued to function as independent squadron, and 1996–1999, during which time it reported directly to the 175th Wing.

When I was contacted by the Squadron last year about plaques they issue for deployments, I started researching the logos and missions. These folks are involved all over the world. If we have military somewhere, the Maryland Air National Guard is not far behind. The graphics they provided were too low a resolution to make an effective engraving. 135thAirlift GroupI worked on these for weeks before deciding it was best to just redraw them. I did not want to use a black and white outlines as that would look too much like a rubber stamp. I wanted something more along the lines of a carving. Baltimore's Best InsigniaI should probably explain here that I consider cutting (or more accurately burning into the wood) an engraving and cutting away the background and leaving a design standing as laser carving. What I wanted to do was to replicate color with depth and texture. This is the resulting plaque.

The 135th also uses the designation “Baltimore’s Best”. This insignia was even more of a challenge. It features cross lances on a shield which boasts the Maryland State Flag, which is a fascinating and complicated design.The flag of the state of Maryland consists of the heraldic banner of George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore. It is the only state flag in the United States to be based on English heraldry. It took me about 12 different designs and 20 (yes, 20) tests runs to find that combination of deeply cut but not too deep and crisply cut lines. It is a heraldry insignia and the motto “Baltimore’s Best” was adopted in 1987 as a result of the unit being recognized by the Best in Baltimore committee the same year.

I do not think I have ever worked so hard on simple plaques. For reasons I am at a loss to explain, I considered this task most important. The squadron sent me an Arm patch in appreciation which is quickly becoming one of my most prized processions. I enjoyed working with these wonderful and brave Americans. I must say if we ever get into a real scrape, I want them on my side.

I had finished all of the plaques (I made a big batch) and was preparing to wrap them when at the very last minute, I decided to engrave the backs with “proudly made in the U.S.A.” After this experience, I really must say, “I sleep better at night, knowing the 135th and the entire 175th is over head”. May God Bless them all and keep them safe.

Peace

George

Another year with Fishers Laser Carvers

I have just finished and delivered my 500th plaque since I have been on this journey. It was a tumultuous season. Illness and family illness (nothing dire just irratating) prevented me from being as prepared as I needed to be. However, with some late nights and complaining I managed to ship 60 items. hymn plaqueSome very touching and powerful in the personal messages they contain. This once again reminded me of the task of creating these little simple things that touch hearts and send a sentiment. It always gives me pause.prayer plaque

From the special rushed package from one of our boys in Afghanistan to his wife or the simple children’s prayer remembered from long ago, these little pieces of wood attempt to say something. This is an ancient thing. I have been laboring at this for some time and it still pleases and amazes me to have a small part in this process.

We live in a world filled with division and turmoil. The news speaks daily of the angst and fear that people feel in dealing with this uncertainty. I think we need to remind ourselves at this time of year that all are just people. They get their hearts broken, they lose loved ones, they celebrate births, they struggle with jobs and money, they have trials and tribulations and it is not hard in the hustle and bustle of everyday life for folks to start thinking that they don’t matter. They feel as leafs on a river. Well they do matter! I think perhaps that just the reminder that Jesus loves them and I love them can make a burden a little less heavy or a joy a little more memorable. In my poor way I like to think that I play a small part in delivering these messages.Plaque

I received a letter from a customer who wrote; “I can’t begin to tell you what your work has done for me. I was going through one of the worst times in my life and in my hands was the beautiful plaque you made for me. I held the wood and read the words and I began to feel a little better. Don’t ever think that what you do doesn’t matter. I will cherish this always.”

This is my reward. The government and insurance companies take the rest.

Merry Christmas Everyone

George

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