MY Story
I wouldn't really consider myself that much of an artist. In fact, the highest award I ever reaped for art was the "third grade artist of the week" when I was in elementary school. That was some twenty years ago...
About three years ago, I found myself picking up a paintbrush on a continuous basis. I was enrolled in a beginning painting class at university in hopes of fulfilling a humanities requirement. I've always enjoyed working with my hands, especially if it involved creating something special for a friend or family member. I'm a big gifts guy. I like to see people smile.
This whole business started up after my wife and I had the idea of refurbishing a coffee table for our new house. We visited a local antique shop and while browsing we came across a number of coffee tables, examining each subject carefully. Ultimately, we settled on a $28 dollar piece. The only problem was, when we looked at each other and thought, "refurbished," it was difficult to pinpoint what that meant to us.
Then, it clicked: MAPS.
Ever since my wife and I grew to know each other more and more, we bonded in a similar love affair for anything related to maps, especially maps of the world. From there, the blueprint for our coffee table was declared, and another idea was born.
Enter: HP World Coffee Tables.
For me this is a hobby, and as mentioned, I like working with my hands. I like to create things that are one of a kind. I have a full time job and while this business idea has certainly sprouted with the mindset to making some sort of money, my goal is to deliver a product you would love to have in your home.
About three years ago, I found myself picking up a paintbrush on a continuous basis. I was enrolled in a beginning painting class at university in hopes of fulfilling a humanities requirement. I've always enjoyed working with my hands, especially if it involved creating something special for a friend or family member. I'm a big gifts guy. I like to see people smile.
This whole business started up after my wife and I had the idea of refurbishing a coffee table for our new house. We visited a local antique shop and while browsing we came across a number of coffee tables, examining each subject carefully. Ultimately, we settled on a $28 dollar piece. The only problem was, when we looked at each other and thought, "refurbished," it was difficult to pinpoint what that meant to us.
Then, it clicked: MAPS.
Ever since my wife and I grew to know each other more and more, we bonded in a similar love affair for anything related to maps, especially maps of the world. From there, the blueprint for our coffee table was declared, and another idea was born.
Enter: HP World Coffee Tables.
For me this is a hobby, and as mentioned, I like working with my hands. I like to create things that are one of a kind. I have a full time job and while this business idea has certainly sprouted with the mindset to making some sort of money, my goal is to deliver a product you would love to have in your home.
The Importance of Dexterity
I've always enjoyed working with my hands. To this day, one of the greatest gifts I ever received was from my parents following a first grade choral concert. I remember my eyes lighting up as hydraulics pushed open the trunk door that would run parallel with the night sky. I jumped in joy all while throwing my tiny body into the bear hug that awaited. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" I said as I squeezed my dad. For before my eyes lay a gigantic blue box. Inside that box, LEGO's. 1200 pieces to be exact.
Creativity is my outlet. So much so that I believe that if I were put on this earth for anything, it was for a purpose to either make people laugh, or create one of a kind things for if not myself, for others. I love to see people smile, and if that means giving them something cool, than that's good for me.
My childhood hobbies were nothing special, but the things I did do, I did well. When I was a kid, I loved to draw. Aside from that, I would play with toys that required me to construct things. If I wasn't drawing or building something, I was playing video games. All things that required use of my hands. I specifically remember that for hours on end, when I was a mere ten years old, I would position myself in front of the TV and watch Nickelodeon, all the while, drawing and coloring pictures of my favorite cartoons. In yet, as I grew older, I never saw myself wanting to pursue a career as an artist. It was, and probably always will be, just a hobby.
The first time I did any woodwork was in 7th grade industrial tech. The only piece I completed in that class that required actual cutting, sanding, and finishing a piece of wood was a wall clock. I decided that my design would be that of the logo of the professional hockey team, the Philadelphia Flyers. Makes sense, I know, a kid from Missouri wanting to make a clock for his bedroom representing the "Broad Street Bullies". The reason behind my madness was purely because I liked sports, and that the tech teacher had convenient cardboard cutouts of every NHL team "decorating" the cold cell block walls of his classroom. I'm pretty sure I got a B. I don't know where the clock is today.
When I was a teenager I loved to bother my mom to take me to craft stores, a place in which I still love to visit today. I love walking around thinking of things I could create. One minute I will be picking out brushes, the next I will have my hand on some felt, and then somehow I will be looking at fake flowers. I often spend too much time in the craft store. So much so that I have been mistaken as an employee multiple times by fellow customers. My mom has always been one of my biggest supporters for my art work. She loved to see what I would bring home, regardless of how ridiculous. For example, when I was in high school I took a ceramics class and some of my masterpieces that were so honorable as to earn a shelf in my basement ranged from a replication of the Roman Colosseum to a spot on McDonald's Happy Meal. Let me just tell you that my art teacher was flexible. I'm weird, well aware.
My second true experience with any wood work was because of my mom. One day when she and I were running errands, we stopped at a craft store. I was visiting my grandma and grandpa's house later that day and I wanted to bring something that would consume my time. Somehow I settled on a wood burner. Why? Hell if I know. Next thing I know, I was sketching the seal of the United States (because...why not?!) and holding a smoldering hot plastic tool with a metal tip, "burning" a piece of wood. It was awesome.
I'm now to the point in my art career that I'm looking for something new to do.
In early May of 2015 my wife, Alex, and I were scavenging at a local thrift store. It was there that I came across a solid wood coffee table in pretty good shape. I said to my wife that we need to buy this because I have an idea for a sweet looking coffee table. It just so happened that my idea encompassed one of the things she and I both loved to look at, and buy...maps. The reason we both love maps is because we envision ourselves one day traveling all over the world. While skeptical, she was supportive, and soon enough we bought the table, purchased a hand sander from a department store, and I went to work. First, I sanded the top, but in keeping its original stained complexity on the sides and legs of the table, for character I thought. Second, I loaded a photo of a world map silhouette on my iPad and began to free hand on the top of the table. Next, came paint. I went simple and matched the silhouette and chose a black acrylic paint. After paint, I finished the piece with a satin polyurethane which absorbed the wood, in turn darkening the top, but still protected the painting. I had finished the top, but I wasn't satisfied, I wanted something else. I thought, "What if I added a shelf to this?" I headed back to the department store and searched high and low for something convenient, yet not gaudy, to attach to the bottom of the table top. There I found four wine glass racks that I maneuvered every which way in the store before purchasing. After what seemed to be an hour, I had my design and I purchased the racks. To complete the piece, I screwed the racks onto the bottom and carefully slid a magazine into the open-ended shelf. It looked cool, it worked, sweet. The final touch, and what truly made this piece mine was a signature. A small TM, interlaced in design, completed the table.
Next thing I know, HP WORLD COFFEE TABLES launched. Now coffee tables flood my tiny office and loads of paint, poly, brushes, and sandpaper are scattered about. I found my next project.
Dexterity is important to me. Being creative is important to me. Doing something that is not only fun, but rewarding, is even more fun. Take a second to look at your hands, wiggle your fingers. I'm not Yoda, nor a wise monk, but be thankful for the little things in life, things we take for granted every day, like the use of our hands.
-Tony
Creativity is my outlet. So much so that I believe that if I were put on this earth for anything, it was for a purpose to either make people laugh, or create one of a kind things for if not myself, for others. I love to see people smile, and if that means giving them something cool, than that's good for me.
My childhood hobbies were nothing special, but the things I did do, I did well. When I was a kid, I loved to draw. Aside from that, I would play with toys that required me to construct things. If I wasn't drawing or building something, I was playing video games. All things that required use of my hands. I specifically remember that for hours on end, when I was a mere ten years old, I would position myself in front of the TV and watch Nickelodeon, all the while, drawing and coloring pictures of my favorite cartoons. In yet, as I grew older, I never saw myself wanting to pursue a career as an artist. It was, and probably always will be, just a hobby.
The first time I did any woodwork was in 7th grade industrial tech. The only piece I completed in that class that required actual cutting, sanding, and finishing a piece of wood was a wall clock. I decided that my design would be that of the logo of the professional hockey team, the Philadelphia Flyers. Makes sense, I know, a kid from Missouri wanting to make a clock for his bedroom representing the "Broad Street Bullies". The reason behind my madness was purely because I liked sports, and that the tech teacher had convenient cardboard cutouts of every NHL team "decorating" the cold cell block walls of his classroom. I'm pretty sure I got a B. I don't know where the clock is today.
When I was a teenager I loved to bother my mom to take me to craft stores, a place in which I still love to visit today. I love walking around thinking of things I could create. One minute I will be picking out brushes, the next I will have my hand on some felt, and then somehow I will be looking at fake flowers. I often spend too much time in the craft store. So much so that I have been mistaken as an employee multiple times by fellow customers. My mom has always been one of my biggest supporters for my art work. She loved to see what I would bring home, regardless of how ridiculous. For example, when I was in high school I took a ceramics class and some of my masterpieces that were so honorable as to earn a shelf in my basement ranged from a replication of the Roman Colosseum to a spot on McDonald's Happy Meal. Let me just tell you that my art teacher was flexible. I'm weird, well aware.
My second true experience with any wood work was because of my mom. One day when she and I were running errands, we stopped at a craft store. I was visiting my grandma and grandpa's house later that day and I wanted to bring something that would consume my time. Somehow I settled on a wood burner. Why? Hell if I know. Next thing I know, I was sketching the seal of the United States (because...why not?!) and holding a smoldering hot plastic tool with a metal tip, "burning" a piece of wood. It was awesome.
I'm now to the point in my art career that I'm looking for something new to do.
In early May of 2015 my wife, Alex, and I were scavenging at a local thrift store. It was there that I came across a solid wood coffee table in pretty good shape. I said to my wife that we need to buy this because I have an idea for a sweet looking coffee table. It just so happened that my idea encompassed one of the things she and I both loved to look at, and buy...maps. The reason we both love maps is because we envision ourselves one day traveling all over the world. While skeptical, she was supportive, and soon enough we bought the table, purchased a hand sander from a department store, and I went to work. First, I sanded the top, but in keeping its original stained complexity on the sides and legs of the table, for character I thought. Second, I loaded a photo of a world map silhouette on my iPad and began to free hand on the top of the table. Next, came paint. I went simple and matched the silhouette and chose a black acrylic paint. After paint, I finished the piece with a satin polyurethane which absorbed the wood, in turn darkening the top, but still protected the painting. I had finished the top, but I wasn't satisfied, I wanted something else. I thought, "What if I added a shelf to this?" I headed back to the department store and searched high and low for something convenient, yet not gaudy, to attach to the bottom of the table top. There I found four wine glass racks that I maneuvered every which way in the store before purchasing. After what seemed to be an hour, I had my design and I purchased the racks. To complete the piece, I screwed the racks onto the bottom and carefully slid a magazine into the open-ended shelf. It looked cool, it worked, sweet. The final touch, and what truly made this piece mine was a signature. A small TM, interlaced in design, completed the table.
Next thing I know, HP WORLD COFFEE TABLES launched. Now coffee tables flood my tiny office and loads of paint, poly, brushes, and sandpaper are scattered about. I found my next project.
Dexterity is important to me. Being creative is important to me. Doing something that is not only fun, but rewarding, is even more fun. Take a second to look at your hands, wiggle your fingers. I'm not Yoda, nor a wise monk, but be thankful for the little things in life, things we take for granted every day, like the use of our hands.
-Tony