Hello World! In case you followed the “Harley, Lisa, and Ajit” story on sailingpearl.com, and have been wondering what we’ve been up to, here’s the latest.
The three of us have spent the past several months in Portland, OR. Initially, we were exploring the possibility of building little robots to automate routine manufacturing tasks for small producers. In doing so, however, we encountered a minor problem: we had no experience manufacturing anything. So, we decided to launch a little manufacturing company out of our basement that produces solid wood furniture and accessories. This seemed like a better first step than trying to solve problems that we didn’t quite understand.
So, what are we making? Our first products are simple ideas: a cradle for charging phones when traveling; floating shelves, serving platters, bud vases, and a couple of other things we are still debating — like candelabras and (desk) organizers. Some of what we have made has been released into the wild already with friends and family.
Why these things, you may ask. All these items are items we have needed or wanted. We figured what we came up with for us may work for other people as well. They also build fundamental skills like cutting straight, making perfect corners, making dead flat surfaces, making regular and irregular polygon shapes, and most importantly finishing. These are all essential skills for making larger items like tables, chairs, and other furniture — that we will get to soon!
The smaller stuff also helps us with the business aspects of this project, sourcing and storing material, doing a production run of something, shipping, marketing, the list goes on. Having acquired most of our tools and honing our basic skills, we are now ready to set up our media presence and ramp up production.
Please comment, make suggestions, tell us we are crazy, whatever! Stay tuned. More to come.