Red Jade Kung-Fu Store

If you know me at all you know I'm a bit of an artisan. I make stuff. Often I'll see something and say - I could make that. I don't have any training, or any background in any related industry. I fiddle around and things turn out.

So a couple of years ago when started Kung-Fu class I saw these wooden practice broadswords and thought "I can make that". I'd never made anything like it, but I figured I I had the right thickness of wood I could cut the shape with a jigsaw and shape it with a sander. So I did. I made a set of 10 swords with the Red Jade school's logo hand-burned into the blade of each one, and then I made a stand to hold them in. It took me weeks and at the time I was camping and using a generator to power my tools, so it was a real pain. But I learned a lot along the way.

Fast forward to now and I'm currently on a quest to make some extra cash to finance house renovations - we really need a new furnace and new windows. So among my many projects (none of which has made me any real money yet, but many of which have cost me a fair bit - my many talents do NOT include making money, unfortunately!!!) - I decided I should try selling stuff at my Kung-Fu school. Currently anyone who wants something Kung-Fu related has to order it on-line as there's no local resource, and there's no China-town in any of the communities in this area. So I made a deal with my Shifu (That's Mandarin for teacher/master - equivalent to the Japanese word Sensai) if it would be OK to set up a shop and he would benefit from getting a portion of any profits made. I had already sold some other hand-made stiff at a friend's store and the deal there was a 30% mark-up, so that sounded god here. The great thing is I don't have to pay rent, and Shifu doesn't have to do anything except handle the cash when someone buys something. He's already got the space so it doesn't cost him any extra.

So I set o work. First I decided on a list of products I would offer, then figured out how to present them. I decided that since the space is a section of wall it would be cool to make a Chinese style archway and display all the products in the space created inside. So I researched Chinese archways on Google image search and settled on a basic design.  For the sign it was straight boards with a curved horn at the ends.  So I made a template for the horns, traced it on to the boards and cut them out.  Then my daughters and I painted them and after my Wife added the signage and Chinese characters.

The rest was basically making a set of shelves, and cuttig and painting the other components.  Given it's size I had to assemble it on-site.  So off to the school we went and I put it together and then we added the stock we had and realized it was practically empty.  So we had to make lots more stuff.    These pictures are with the current stock after a few days of making stuff.  So far everything I've put in the store is hand-made by myself or my wife and daughters.  I do all the weapons an anything involving wood-working - with some assistance from my daughters.  Janelle especially likes to help with tracing patterns, sanding, painting, etc.  My wife is skilled at copying things, so she's mostly in charge of the Chinese calligraphy.  We get characters from chineseculture.about.com and copy from there.
Eventually I'll also buy things from China or China-towns I visit to re-sell them at a mark-up.  In addition I've provided a space for Shifu to sell some of hs books and DVDs.  As well, my friend, kung-fu sister and illustrator Lorna Foot is making a series of mini-books for the kids.  So far they are cartoon manuals, but she may also do some comics and other things.  She's a very talented young artist.
 

So far in the store we have for sale:
-Pendant necklaces
-Form counters (Boards that are mostly blank with some decorative calligraphy for students to mark down a number each time hey practice a form aka kata or set)
-Sash hangers to display your sash (in other martial arts would be called belts)
-Rocks painted with Chinese calligraphy
-Wooden ornaments with Chinese calligraphy
-Kids 5 foot bamboo spears
-kids and adults pairs of wooden ring daggers
-Kids and adult size wooden Dao (Chinese broadsword)
-And one wooden Wing sword
-Shifu's 16 Dragon manual
-Lorna's White Sash manual for kids
-Seiza meditation benches

I'm very proud of the store.  I think it looks great in the school.  I think I'm offering some unique items that are right for the people that visit the school at reasonable prices.  My family and I have invested a lot of time and energy - and a bit of money - into this little store, so we're very hopeful that it will prove successful.  Now that it's up it should prove to be fairly low maintenance.  I will have to add products to keep it stocked, but since I enjoy making them that's no great chore.
So if you happen to be in Creston, BC, Canada (just North of the Idaho Panhandle and about 3.5 hours from Spokane Washington) stop by the Red Jade school to check it and maybe do a little Kung-Fu while you're there.