CrackerCreekMillwork

ABOUT OUR SHOP
Cracker Creek Millworks is located on a small farm along the pristine headwaters of the Indian River Lagoon in east central Florida. The property actually borders the Kennedy Space Center and you can literally watch the rockets launch into space from the yard. It is a small two man operation run by me, Alvin, and my brother in law Mike. Although we are new to Etsy, we are not new to what we do. We have been making and selling these and similar products for several years.

All of our products are made from recycled materials. There is no sense buying new material when the landfills are full of scrap material. We have made arrangements to take all of the scrap material from several cabinet and counter top companies, we scour construction sites, and buy scrap from craig's list. Just doing our part to help keep ole Mother Earth a little greener.

Most of our products are personalized made to order items. The products that we offer include Address Plaques, Personalized Cutting Boards, Pet Grave Memorial Markers, Horse Stall Name Plaques, Welcome Signs, Family Name Signs, Established Signs, Farm & Ranch Signs, Garden Signs, Man Cave Signs, Hat Racks, Key Racks, Wildlife Art, and much more. We also do custom work and are open to making just about anything.

OUR STORY
In what now seems like another lifetime, I was an Art Teacher at the high school and college levels. I taught graphic design and print making. After a few years of that, the artist spirit in me could no longer take being confined in a classroom all day. I wanted to be the one doing the creating. I decided it would be more rewarding to go in business for myself. I owned and operated a t-shirt printing and sign painting business for 30 years. I designed and made the Space Shuttle t-shirts for NASA that were sold in their stores at Kennedy Space Center. Back in those days there was no such thing as computers and graphic programs to help do the artwork. Everything had to be drawn and painted by hand. You had to truly be an artist back in those days. When computers and the internet came along, the business expanded to include web design. It became a one stop shop for other businesses. We designed their new logo, made the signs for their shop and vehicles, clothed their employees with imprinted apparel, and built their website for them.

A few years ago, I semi-retired due to some health issues. Out of boredom, I set up a woodworking shop in the barn on the farm where I live. The horses can stick their head thru the door to watch what is going on.

Around the same time Mike was laid off from his job of 32 years at Kennedy Space Center when the Space Shuttle program was shut down. He had worked all those years in a machine shop where they built many of the parts for the Space Shuttle. He is a handy guy and can do just about anything. For many years, his hobby has been building and restoring custom cars and motorcycles and he has become an expert at painting and finishing. He puts the beautiful finishing touch on all our items.

With plenty of time on both our hands, we built a homemade woodcarving cnc machine to make things we needed around our properties. The cnc (computer numerical control) machine does the rough carving and then we complete the carving and do all of the painting and finish work by hand. When people saw some of the things we were making, they started asking us to make things for them. One thing led to another, and the hobby turned into another business. Customers kept telling us we needed to put our products on Etsy, so here we are.