Used - Carpettome Inlay Cutting System

[jewelcatz]

Maybe I will hang on to my Carpettome for a little while longer.

However, I do still have the binding brute. Does anyone know if these machines are ever bought for parts? Or . . . maybe I could find someone with a entire machine casing that is intact . . . Hummmmmm

PS - Thanks for instructions on how to upload photos into our messages. I am going to try it right now.

Photo #1 - Me standing next to one of my all time favorite designs called, "Cats at the Indy 500?"

Photo #2 - This is the backside of a carpet inlay portrait that I made for my grandmother. I did not use the Carpettome for this piece. There were far too many small intricut pieces. (Over 800 pieces and it took me 8 months from start to finish)

Photo #3 - This is the front side of the finished portrait of the Indian Chief.

[Daris Mulkin]

Being a custom rug maker myself did you attend any of the schools to learn the trade? The bottom of the market has fallen out for this type of work here and as has for Chris also on this board. How did you cut all the pieces on the chief? Hot knife?.
I myself have 2 Tomes and 3 Brute binders. Can't just put a filler of some sort in the crack of yours and make it work? How did it crack, someone drop it?
Oh by the way welcome to the board and by all means show us some more of your work we like pictures. Kind of gives you bragging rights.


Daris

[TFP Admin]

jewelcatz said I just tried to upload a couple of photos and it didn't work.

Other staff didn't notice that your 2 messages above were awaiting moderator approval. New members can't post URLs without going into the moderation queue because of the prevalence of spammers.

I approved your posts. I also changed your images to use our upload feature because PhotoBucket sucks. What's good for PhotoBucket is not good for TFP - your images will sooner or later be gone and I want visitors for years to be able to view your work.

Jim

[jewelcatz]

Thanks to all for your warm words of welcome.

Well, believe it or not, I am self-taught in all of these skills, from carpentry and wood contruction to carpet inlay design.

Yes, the Indian Chief was done with a hot knife.

I'll see if I can find any more photos of some our most outrageous cat furniture designs. The name of my trademarked company was "Me-Ow-Trageous" Inc.

The racecar design was featured in Newsweek Magazine, but for the life of me, I can't remember which issue.

[jewelcatz]

Thanks for your help, Jim.

[jewelcatz]

As for the crack in cast iron casing of the binding brute, I have no idea how it happened. Everybody was always pretty careful with our machines. As far this particular machine, one day the thread just started breaking. We tried and tried to figure out what was going on but we couldn't. So we took it into a local shop that worked on carpet and flooring tools and machinery and they are the ones that discovered the crack.

My husband happens to be a welder, but he told me that it was just about impossible to repair a small crack in like this in cast iron. He tried his best to fix it but nothing he tried worked. So, we just gave up after that.

Here are a couple of photos of one of our most popular designs, "The Grand Sophisti-Cat". This is a cat bed but it also plays music. There is a hidden music box that plays the hit theme song "Memory" from the Broadway musical "Cats". (the piano lid opens and closes just like a real grand piano)

The inlays are the black & white keys on piano's keyboard.

[jewelcatz]

Well, it is do or die time. I have a real important job interview this morning, the results of which will determine whether or not I have to sell my Carpettome.

Wish me luck . . . .

[Nick Arrera]

Good Luck .

[jewelcatz]

GEES! I don't think there is anything in world that I hate more than Temporary Employment Agencies (aka - Staffing Agencies). I have been trying my very best to steer clear of them during my daily job search activities and for the past 3 months I have been fairly successful.

But now they are getting tricky. They are posting job ads to Craigslist.com now and they are writing the ads as if they are the actual employer. The choice of anonymity is practiced by a large portion of the employers that post job ads on Craiglist but up until very recently, you could pretty assume that most of the job ad posted to Craigslist were posted by the actual employer.

I recently submitted my resume to a job ad on Craigslist and I was pretty excited because I couldn't have written a better job description that so closely matched my experience, knowledge, and skills, than the one I was responding to. I knew that I would be called to interview for this position.

Well, the owner of that particular job ad was actually a Staffing Agency. I finally decided to given in to my better judgement and I did this because the job sounded absolutely perfect for me. This means I had to go to the staffing agency's office, fill out all of their paperwork, and then I had interview with the staffing agency rep regarding this particular job position.

She said that I was a perfect match for the job and she told me that she would contact her client immediately to set up a time for me to interview directly with the client.

I haven't heard a word since I left her office and that was 3 days ago. I sent her two email messages so far, asking her for an update but my messages go unanswered.

I was so excited about this job and I truly thought that I might be going back to work. But, alas, it was just another ploy by a staffing agency to beef up their resume portfolio that they show to prospective clients in order to clinch the sale of their employment consulting services.

So, here we are again, just barely able to make our morgage payment and now we have only a few bucks and some change left over, and now we have to find a way to make that last for next 7 days.

So, basically, if something doesn't happen by tomorrow, I won't have any other options left but to sell my Carpettome.