Hey everyone, Mike here. With the HandMade Market less than two weeks away we are busily working away on a few more projects that we are eager to show you. Lately we have been focusing on some tables and other items we think you’ll love. Plus Julie has been painting away, creating some beautiful pieces as part of her Niagara House Project… Check out her site to see more about it (www.julieponesseart.com).

So with all of the table building and problem solving that comes with that (yes “level”, I’m talking to you), I found myself missing the process of designing some of our lights. Today I decided it might be fun to revisit that experience and set out to design at least one more light in time for the HandMade Market (by the way, if you are curious about what that’s all about, click here: www.handmademarket.ca). We had found a wonderful piece of live edge walnut a couple of months back, and it is proving to be the inspiration for this particular light. The rings in the wood provide a perfect frame for where the light will rise up. I am pretty excited about how it is turning out so far, plus I have chosen to use a green cord which I always enjoy… Here’s a picture I shot earlier.

We’ll post the finished product on the website as soon as it’s finished or you can come out and see it yourself … unless someone buys it first. But then, I’m kind of attached to this one, but then, I often say that about the things we create.

Hope to see you out at the HandMade Market at 13^th Street Winery on May 9^th, and 10^th!

Hi everyone–it’s a pleasure to meet you!

If you are reading this on our website, and you’ve had a chance to browse around, then you will already have a sense of who we are and what we do. If you landed here from elsewhere, then some introductions are in order.

We are Mike and Julie, and we are Square Peg Designs.

WHAT DO WE DO?

The official, longer answer (which Julie likes because it has more words) has something to do with seeing ‘dormant beauty’ in ‘reclaimed objects’… ‘creating one-of-a-kind…with an industrial chic feel.’ All true but, you know, yada yada yada.

The short answer (Mike’s preference) is that we like to turn cool, old stuff into even cooler (if you can imagine) new stuff. Like these lights which we are really infatuated with!

WHY SQUARE PEG?        

Well, now there’s a story. But we’ll spare you the sordid details.

To get the gist, just think of the misfit, the nerd, the loner, the dork, the nonconformist, the oddball, the maverick…that strange species of human that is somehow a square peg in a round hole, an unusual individualist who doesn’t quite ‘fit.’

We are a couple of square pegs. No doubt about that. But the materials we use to make  our products are also square pegs in their own right: objects that were once valued but have, over time, been cast aside for something more functional, more useful, or more beautiful. We think that many of these objects–floor boards, industrial bases, Mason jars, shoe lasts–just need a little ‘encouragement’ to become something useful once again and, hopefully, pretty cool to look at as well.

WHERE CAN I FIND SQUARE PEG STUFF?

Check us out on our website, our blog, and on our Facebook page. And, of course, check back here where we will let you know what we are working on.

WHAT WILL THIS BLOG BE ABOUT?

Be prepared for a bit of a motley crew here.

We’ll post pictures of items as we complete them, and also include some shots and details of projects we are in the process of creating or finishing, like this light.

Sometimes, we’ll let you know about cool resources and events in the area, and sometimes the blog will just be a wonderful cathartic place where the square pegs that we are can muse about things we love (and don’t love) to eat, drink, see, think about, hear, etc.

The common thread is that we’ll give you some insight into our journey as our little venture unfolds, and hope that you will tell us what you like, what you don’t like, and what you’d like to see more of.

Well, that’s all for now folks. Stay tuned for our next post where we’ll show you one of the projects we were working on during our never-ending winter (that, apparently, did end)–yeah!

Cheers, everyone,

from a couple of square pegs