Think of the songs or movies that are most memorable. Chances are, they are the songs that are unique, fresh, unpredictable, or have an unexpected twist at the end – these ones seem to stick in your mind.
Ain’t nothin like the real thing, baby.
Written by Eddie DeJong on August 5th, 2009How often do you see synthetic materials, or plasics trying to look like nature’s best…
Debt in business.
Written by Eddie DeJong on July 24th, 2009I constantly have ideas. It seems like every day, I could sit down and think of a 1/2 dozen business ideas.
Now, I didnt say that they were good business ideas, just ideas….
A Synthetic World.
Written by Eddie DeJong on June 8th, 2009It wasn’t much more than a hundred years ago that the automobile didn’t even exist. People rode to church in horse drawn buggies, and bundled up at night with wool blankets in front of a hardwood fire.
When someone bought leather shoes, they were real leather, not an imitation mass-produced vinyl impostor with a fake leather grain print.
Furniture was much the same. Built from solid wood, and precise joints, the furniture was hand crafted to last a lifetime. Even today, It is not uncommon to go into an antiques store and find a classic work desk, or a night table built a hundred years ago, and still just as strong as the day it was made. Try and do that with today’s mass produced furniture with imitation textures, and cheap paint jobs.
People, in the 30’s, often purchased things to last them for a lifetime. No one purchased an expensive item thinking ‘well, we will just replace it in a couple of years’. Higher-end products were thought through in design, and there seemed to be more room for artistry and craftsmanship.
Even ancient buildings had so much character. Businesses incorporated arches and design accents to trim and doorways. City halls had columns and character, and layers upon layers of molding. Churches incorporated all of the artisans they could find, and built structures with gorgeous arches, swooping supports, and buttresses. Carvings of religious scenes which must have taken thousands of hours to procure splash across walls of old Catholic churches everywhere.
I remember one time, when visiting the Montreal Jazz festival with my wife, we decided to go into an old Anglican church off of Rue St Laurent. There was something about the architecture in this building that gave you no choice but to be voluntarily pensive. The quietness, and solitude of the church made a lasting impact. A great place to reflect, and think about your life. Today, most mega churches have massive video screens, rock concert quality sound systems, and painted drywall and plush carpets. I prefer the creaky old church when I want some time to think.
Today I received a hammock for Father’s day from my wife and kids. It is one of those classic hammocks; you know, the ones with the weaved cotton ropes, the stained wood separators, and neatly knitted detailing. It is made in India, and is simple, but beautiful. It isn’t perfect as far as craftsmanship goes. The holes through the wood where the rope weaves through have some chips, and some of the cotton threading is frayed. It is made from cotton rope, wood, iron, and no synthetic materials. It is classic, handcrafted, and although not perfect, that’s what makes it perfect.
How many times today, do we get suckered into the ‘Walmart junk’ that we buy, because ‘oh, it is such a great deal!’, only to find the thing breaks, or doesn’t perform like we hoped it would.
I used to buy cheap shoes, because it was at a stage in my life, when I really couldn’t afford expensive shoes. I am sure most of us have been there. It was just the ‘norm’ that every four months I would head down to the store and pick up a new pair. Then one time I designed to ‘splurge’ and buy an expensive pair of Doc Martens shoes for $175.00. I felt sick for spending that much, but I really liked the shoes. Guess what? I had those shoes for no less than 3 years. That’s 900% more life than out of a cheap pair of shoes. Hmmm… it started to sink in.
I am looking to buy a Volvo. Most likely it will be either a Cross Country, or an S60. What I like about the Volvos, and many other higher-end cars, is that they use natural materials. Volvos have interior accents made from real aluminum, and real burl, rather than synthetic knock-offs. It makes a difference. My father-in-law has a Dodge Dakota truck. It is only a couple of years old, and has this cheap, woodgrain dash accent that in my opinion looks terrible. They tried to make it look authentic, but – sorry guys – you just made it look cheap.
There is just something about natural materials that cannot be duplicated or copied. God’s artistry far surpasses anything that we can try and recreate. Besides, everything we try to duplicate is influenced by nature anyways He has a way of creating beauty out of chaos. Of creating artwork from randomness in grain patterns in wood. In intoxicating you with the aromas of natural leather, or surprising you with the pallet of colour that comes from a cut of natural granite. Colours that could never randomly come together by chance. Nature is truly astounding.
And this is where it comes down to my business. Yes I realize you can buy a humidor, mass produced in Asia for $75.00. And, yes, I pay nearly that much for my premium hardware alone. But my quest at Vanderburgh Humidors is to create unique, individual pieces of artwork, made from noble materials, like natural stone, solid wood, hand crafted glass, and full grain leather. The more authentic, the better.
I don’t want to make my humidors on computer controlled precision machines. I want you to be proud, and surprised by the intricate accuracy of a hand-cut joint, and a hand polished finish. To be astonished by the beauty of real natural products, not synthetic knock-offs. To bring back the age-old art of hand-craftsmanship.
Will you be able to see a minor flaw? Probably, if you look hard enough. They are indeed made by hand, and the raw materials are not synthetic. But that is specifically what makes them perfect.
Vanderburgh Humidors. Artistically made with unique, natural materials.
Humidity and Climate Change
Written by Eddie DeJong on June 3rd, 2009If you live in a climate like myself (I live in Canada), and my winters are cold (usually an average temperature in January would be something like -5 to -10 degrees C, or 14 to 25 F. But in the summer, it is not uncommon to get temperatures around 25-30 C or 80-95 F. The problem where I live is because of this drastic change in temperature over the seasons, this can inadvertently effect the humidity of my humidor if I am not careful. If you store you humidor in your basement, where it is relatively cold in the winter, once the summer hits and your basement temp increases in temperature, this will change how your humidifier performs. Since we are moving into the summer time, I think this information might be timely.
So I am going to explain how temperature will affect the RH inside your humidor.
First of all, to create ideal conditions for your cigars to age properly, RH inside your humidor should be kept at between 65 and 75.
Most matter will expand when warmed, and contract when cooled. Think of hydro lines along your street. When its cold, the hydro lines are fairly tight, and in the summer, when it is hot, the hydro lines sag lower.
So when we are talking about air, I would like you to consider a sponge. As a sponge is warmed, it will expand, thus increasing its ability to hold water. When the warm sponge is cooled, it will contract, resulting in a very saturated sponge. In very unscientific terms, we can compare the air inside a humidor to this sponge. Say you have your humidor stabilized at 70% RH in the wintertime. If the temperature increases, the air expands, and will require more moisture to stabilize the air to 70% RH. If your humidifier is dry, and cannot supply enough humidity to accommodate this temperature increase, your RH will drop, and you will be required to add more distilled water to your humidifier. Consequently if your humidor is warm, and the air is stabilized at 70% RH, if the temperature is lowered, the air compresses, and it will force the humidity level to increase.
Now in most cases and the temperature change is gradual, so you don’t have to get too freaked out about drastic changes in your humidor, but you should be aware of it, and keep a close eye on your hygrometer. If you move your humidor from the basement to the living room, where the temperature difference can be up to 15 degrees, then you may notice this effect on your internal RH. Make sure you have a high quality hygrometer, as many hygrometers that are supplied with humidors are of low quality and are inaccurate. For optimal aging conditions, and for superb burn, make sure the RH in your humidor is kept at about 65 – 70.
Visit www.VanderburghHumidors.com for very unique handcrafted humidor designs.
“Diseased” Humidors.
Written by Eddie DeJong on June 2nd, 2009Over 250 years ago, Edmund Burke, an Irish Philosopher once said that “Beauty in Distress is much the most affecting beauty.”
Today, I am going to talk about a well known wood figure called Burl, and I am sure many of you have heard the word.
Burl is formed from a completely different way than other common figured woods. Burl is actually a deformation in wood from disease, or distress. It comes from the gnarly, bulbous tree formations that you might see in a forest and can range from something as small as a fist, or as large as a golf cart. Something happens during the growth stages of the tree, and it alters the cellular structure of the growth, resulting in these odd, and diseaseesque formations.
To describe burl wood, it looks like wavy spinning intertwined colours and textures in the wood surface. It looks like coffee when you add cream to it, where the cream spins and curls on the surface. It is quite stunning in appearance and makes for a gorgeous wood used in expensive furniture or classic cabinets.
Burl comes in all kinds of different wood species, all around the world, including walnut, mahogany, redwood, maple, cypress, poplar and many other different wood species.
Burl is very expensive, and it is not uncommon to pay tens of thousands of dollars for a stump of high figured unfinished burl.
Because burl is formed from the intertwined grains, it makes working with solid burl boards challenging, as it can be unstable depending upon how and where it is usedictable. When using burl on furniture in most cases a veneer is needed. We would take a veneer of the burl, and bond it to a base wood that is stronger than the expanding and contracting burl. However, as I often say, the true beauty in wood comes from using solids, and burl is no exception. Solid burl is absolutely stunning.
If we were to build with solid burl, we would create the humidor as such where the panels would be ‘floating’ to allow for contraction and expansion.
Keep looking back to the www.VanderburghHumidors.com for humidor models featuring solid burl.
Eddie
Building a Company to Run on its Own.
Written by Eddie DeJong on May 26th, 2009About 10 years ago, I owned a marketing consulting company. I used to produce high-end audio productions for companies. Frequently I would require professional voice-over services to add to the audio productions.
One of the projects I sold was to a firm called Bayer Inc. This is a German company who invented the Aspirin and also have a few divisions that manufacture synthetic rubber around the world. Since the audio production I was doing was for international distribution, I needed to acquire some voice services from someone in the Voice Union. The Voice Union is very similar to the Actor’s Union, except is strictly for voice services.
I found a gentleman by the name of Marc Chambers through some research, and I absolutely loved his voice talent. Marc was actually the signature voice of The Weather Network, and was an announcer for the Toronto Argonauts, a CFL football team. I ended up using him for this project, and over the next few years we did a fair amount of business together, and had some great discussions on business over some fine dinners in Toronto.
As some relationships go, we kept in touch less frequently over the years, however the odd time we would call each other and discuss the current projects, and business ideas we both had.
Marc had dozens of great business ideas on the go at any point in time, and he had his fingers into nearly everything voice and recording related you can think of. New media production, voice acting, websites, radio DJ.
It had been a few months since I spoke to Marc last, so I thought it was time to give him a shout. I left a couple messages and emails to him, but didn’t hear back. So I left it. Then about 3 months later, I got a call from him.
To my shock, he told me that he had just gotten through a tough bout with cancer, and that he was in remission. I was glad to hear that he was OK, and we vowed to meet for dinner the next time I was in Toronto.
That was the last time I spoke with him in person. The next time I tried to contact him, his corporate website was down, and so was all of the other business websites. After some web searching, I found that Marc had passed away on May 2nd, 2008.
I was very sad. And I also wondered how all of his business ideas and concepts could die with him.
This made me think of my own business, and how I set it up. If I were to pass away, how would my company continue running on it’s own? I think I would owe it to my customers that my business shouldn’t necessarily be centered around one individual.
Now I don’t know the whole story of Marc’s companies. I am sure he had some fine individuals to carry the torch.
So be careful, in your business, that you don’t take on so much responsibility yourself, that your business will die if you step away.
Eddie