Where the designs come from

You can be one of the first people to see my four new color combination's all pictured together.  I also had the opportunity to turn them in my four most popular shapes.  I get asked all the time how did you come up with the designs for your mills and grinders.  Well, I will tell you the story behind each design and try not to put you to sleep while I do it. 

My most popular design is the Morrison Style (all of my designs are named after important people from some part of my life) and the design for it came from the Victorian era.  I don't know why but as I progressed through a series of shapes it just reminded me of a picture that I saw of a woman dancing at a ball.  From the head to the tapered waist to the ruffles at the bottom of the gown.  On the mills instead of ruffles I put beads or rings which help tell the mills apart on the table or counter.  One bead for salt and three beads for pepper. 

The Rybec Style is just a classic shape that came to me when I was playing chess one day.  It is my version of a rook done in an hour glass shape.

The Strout Style is based off from a mannequin.  My older sister was away at nursing school and I went to visit her for a weekend.  I think I was 5 at the time.  She was working part time at a clothing store for nurses and for some reason that shape stuck with me and makes for a pretty cool shape for mills.

The Haynes Style originally started out as a cross between the Morrison and Strout Styles but I just wasn't happy with the overall shape.  So I kept playing with the shape until one winter day I was outside breaking the icicles and ice off from the eves of my house and I realized that a droplet of water would be a great shape.  So if you turn the mill upside down you will see my version of a water droplet.  Complete from the moment when the droplet is about to break free and becomes very elongated (everything below the head) to the moment when the droplet has just broken free (the actual head).

There is one more style, not pictured here, that I don't make very often and it's called the Dailey Style.  The explanation for that however is going to have to wait for another time when I have a picture of it to show you.