SolitudeValley

With unlimited talent and zero artistic abilities, we think outside the box, but color inside the lines.

My wife and I are a couple of retired, old geezers who up and moved out of the city a few years back. After 23 years in the Army, I retired and joined the Carpenters Union. I enjoyed working at Disney World, NASA, and a nuclear power plant, so I’m a Mickey Mouse, rocket, and atomic carpenter. After 25 years with the US Fish & Wildlife Service, my wife retired and together we bought ourselves a 40-acre backwoods hideaway and aptly named it Solitude Valley. We have all we need, everything we want and more than we deserve.

We found our rustic sign-making passion by making funny but to-the-point no trespassing signs for our property. The neighbors saw them, wanted some and said we ought to sell them online. We made a bunch of them and needed more wood, saw blades, chisels, router bits and a big ole’ chainsaw. So, here we are on a merry-go-round, making and selling signs to get more wood and tools to make and sell more signs to get more…. We have a lot of blown-down and dead snag trees, waiting to be given a new life as signs that WILL HANG AROUND AT YOUR PLACE.

I have to tell you we aren't exactly the greatest artists on Etsy, but with your inspiration, we can make you a beautiful sign. We will never be satisfied or finished with it, but we will pick the best place to stop and ship you that nice sign. We specialize in National Park and rustic live-edge wood slabs from trees that died of natural causes. We also use driftwood, vintage, salvaged, primitive and barn wood.

I will cut the wood and make you some mock-ups on our computer and then my wife will bring your sign to life with chisels, router, paint and the like. For rustic signs, I put on 5 coats of all-weather urethane, make a custom box and ship it to you. We do everything the old-fashioned way, and as Mother Nature intended, colors, textures, and character will be different for every piece of wood we use. We tend to email and send pictures as we go and when we finish. Nails and wormholes are free, but knots and knotty wood are not. Wood is good unless it’s knot wood or Hollywood. We take pride in what we make from start to finish and hope that you fall in love with the sign that we make for you. We enjoy making signs, so we know that you will enjoy having one hanging around at your place.

If you are ever in our area, stop by and have a look at our original pioneer cabin, barn, outhouse and outstanding wood workshop. There is a nice little stream and river running through our property, trails you can hike and the beach is just 20 minutes away. Bring a picnic basket with fried chicken, because we like chicken a lot. You won’t find us anywhere but Etsy. We don’t know anything about Facebook, Pinterest or Twitter, so feel free to post pictures of our signs on whatever social media you use, because we just don’t know how and are too old to figure them out.

My wife says she gets all the money we make and/or she ain't gonna give me none. The coffee cup, sign stand and forest in our ad pictures are not included and or for sale. Feel free to use the coffee cup to help visualize the size.

WILEVI & MARY
HANDMADE WOOD-CRAFTS
MADE WITH HAND TOOLS