About this Product
https://goimagine.com/lightwellcottage
This listing is for one set of solid oak wood bookends. Bring nature's warmth and beauty into your home by using this set to hold books or to display on its own as unique decor. These bookends have natural rustic edges with flat smooth faces. They are a medium brown color with a nice grain pattern. They are solid and heavy enough to support several books. On the bottom of each bookend are rubber feet to prevent them from slipping on smooth surfaces. This item will be shipped with a postcard containing care instructions and an artist statement.
Item Handmade By:
Jeff Bagwell in Auburn, California, 2024
Bookend Measurements:
Bookend One: 5.25” High x 4” Wide x 4” Long
Bookend Two: 5.25” High x 4” Wide x 4.5” Long
Bookend Weight:
4 pounds, 0 ounces (total set)
Materials Used to Create the Bookends:
Solid Oak Wood
Waterproof Wood Glue
Indoor Polyurethane
Mineral Spirits
Care Instructions:
This item is finished with several layers of our homemade wipe-on polyurethane solution. This protects the wood by providing excellent abrasion and scratch resistance. Use a clean damp cloth to wipe down the wood. Because of the polyurethane finish, you do not need to reapply wax or furniture polish to this piece. This item is meant for decoration only and is not meant to be used as a children’s toy.
Disclaimer: We use raw natural wood, which sometimes comes with beautiful "blemishes."
We made every effort to provide accurate multi-angle photos of this set to capture the bookends’ natural shape, color variegation, grain patterns, and natural “imperfections.” Yes, it’s true. Some of our pieces have “blemishes” because here at Lightwell Cottage, we often choose pieces of wood with unique and beautiful markings. It's part of our artistic style. However, it’s important to understand that all cracks, knotholes, and inclusions are cleaned and completely sealed. The item is safe and strong enough to use as home decor. In some cases, for the purpose of artistic design, we intentionally leave void holes completely open but coated with wipe-on polyurethane. We also use both symmetrical and “wonky” pieces of wood depending on the look we’re going for. Again, we do our best to capture these smaller details in our photos. You may click on any photo and use the magnifying tool to zoom in. If you would like additional photos of this item or if you have specific questions, please feel free to contact us anytime.
Lightwell Cottage
Meet the Maker
Lightwell Cottage is a small father-daughter business that offers a variety of handmade gifts. Our home-based business is located in the beautiful Northern California Foothills in Auburn, where we live on a quiet acre with over 100 oak trees and lots of beautiful wildlife. We are both self-taught, and we started this business from a simple love of creativity and a desire to share our gifts with others. In today’s world of impressive AI technology, computerized machinery, and mass production, we hope to inspire others to keep the art of handcrafting alive. Whether you purchase an item from us or simply become inspired to create with your own hands, our main hope is to help spread a deep appreciation for the thoughtful art of handcrafting. To learn more about us, we invite you to explore our demonstration videos, photo galleries, and more over at www.lightwellcottage.com.
Artist Statement by Jeff Bagwell:
Hi. I'm Jeff. I started woodworking as a hobby in 1995. After teaching in the Auburn Union School District for over 20 years, I’m now retired and able to dedicate more time to this favorite craft of mine. Overtime, I learned to challenge myself by moving beyond patterns and creating my own original pieces. I learned that I could use my love of drawing and imagination to work with the natural shape and beauty of raw pieces of wood. The majority of my material comes from trees that have naturally fallen during storms. I’ve been an Auburn, California resident for over forty years now, and I enjoy helping local residents clear fallen trees that I can then use for woodworking. Occasionally, I use pieces of salvaged wood or pieces that have been gifted. Because I don’t purchase perfectly milled boards, I’m able to create one of a kind pieces with unique shapes. My favorite form of woodwork is power-carving because it allows me to bring my visions to life. Original wood art is my passion, but I also enjoy making functional pieces for everyday use such as wooden plates and bowls. Each piece highlights what I see in nature, and my hope is to share this beauty through my creations.
Artist Statement by Melissa Lightwell:
Hello. My name is Melissa/Mel. I have been drawing and crafting since I was a child and even though I never received a formal art education, I have continuously made efforts to improve my skills independently. Nature has been and always will be my greatest teacher. I was raised in and still reside in Northern California, and I have always drawn inspiration from the natural shapes and colors within my surroundings. My father is also an artist. Watching his own creative process and ability to self-teach is what led me into the exciting world of autodidacts. As a child, I watched PBS art shows and checked out drawing videos and tutorial books from our local library. As an adult, I still challenge myself to learn new techniques through various resources. Independent learning has definitely been a slow and sometimes frustrating process but the results continue to be extremely rewarding. Psychology is also an interest of mine. I have a bachelor’s degree in psychology, and some of my creations are inspired by contemplations on human behavior and cultural influences. I’m also a strong believer in art therapy, for I myself have found creativity to be extremely healing. No matter what I create through drawing, painting, sewing, woodworking, or jewelry making, my intention is to spread uplifting energy and to inspire others to explore their own thoughts, feelings, and creativity.
How it’s Made
The Step by Step Handmade Journey:
A strong winter storm destroyed a local tree.
I cut, cleared, & harvested the tree with my chainsaw.
I prepped the pieces of wood to prevent cracking.
I stored the wood for several months to allow the wood to settle.
I rough-cut a piece of wood into a large circle using a chainsaw.
I cut that circle into fourths using my bandsaw.
I stored the pieces in my solar kiln for several more months for drying/sanitizing.
I used a joiner and a sander to prep the surfaces.
I sealed any cracks & holes with a tinted wood glue.
I fine sanded the pieces until the surfaces were smooth.
I signed the piece by stamping the wood with a branding iron.
I sealed the pieces with a homemade wipe-on polyurethane.
I allowed the pieces to sit and fully dry for a few days.
Shop Policies
⭐ Customer Support:
If you have questions or concerns regarding a specific item sold by our specific shop, feel free to contact us anytime. We prefer to keep all communications through goimagine's messaging center, but you're welcome to use our business email as well if you have any issues using the goimagine messaging center. We check messages daily and strive to respond within 24 hours.
Our business email: inquiries@lightwellcottage.com
If you have technical issues with your goimagine user account or issues navigating the goimagine website in general, please contact goimagine support services: https://help.goimagine.com/contact
⭐ Accepted Forms of Payment:
Our Goimagine shop is linked to Stripe, which is a safe and well known payment processor. You will be required to pay with a personal debit or credit card at checkout, and Stripe will securely process your online payment and then send that payment directly to our Stripe account. We, the sellers, do not process your actual payment or see any sensitive financial information. Stripe’s platform meets the highest certification standards to help keep all payments safe. If you're wanting to use something like a Visa gift card to make your purchase, you should first register your gift card through your specific gift card's website such as Visa's vanillagift.com site. The reason for this is because Stripe requires a matching address upon checkout. Your billing address at checkout must match the address on whatever card you choose to use. This is done for security purposes. Goimagine gift certificates, however, do not need to be registered. Simply enter the certificate's code in the promo-code box at checkout. If you have any questions about making a payment, please don't hesitate to reach out to us.
⭐ Processing Times:
Items listed in our goimagine shop are fully completed and typically ship out within 24 hours of the purchase. We strive to send orders on the same day we receive them, but much of this depends on the operating hours of UPS and USPS. We do not ship orders on Sundays since all carrier offices are closed. If an unexpected event should delay your order beyond 3 days of processing, we will promptly notify you, and you will have the option to accept the delay or cancel the order for a full refund. If you request a custom order, processing times will be discussed, and agreements will be made before any payments are requested.
⭐ Shipping Carrier:
We understand that some customers prefer certain carriers, so we have made both UPS and USPS an option at checkout. Customers may choose free UPS GROUND (approx. 1-5 business days) or free USPS GROUND ADVANTAGE (approx. 2-5 business days). No matter which carrier you choose, you will receive a delivery tracking number via email. Please note that we are offering UPS GROUND rather than UPS GROUND SAVER. Doing this ensures that your item will be delivered by UPS and not handed off to USPS in "final mile" locations. For USPS, we are offering GROUND ADVANTAGE because it's more cost effective than their Priority option.
⭐ Shipping Costs:
We have decided to offer free shipping for all of our items. When we say free shipping, we truly mean that we're fully bearing the expense of shipping. We have decided not to hide any shipping or handling fees within our listing prices. Our prices cover the materials and labor it takes to create our items. Whether a customer chooses to pick up an item in person or have an item delivered anywhere in the United States, all customers will be treated equally in terms of final costs.
⭐ Local Pickup Option:
Local customers living in or near Auburn, CA 95602 are welcome to choose local pickup at checkout, but please understand that this option does not include a discount. We decided to fully bear the expense of shipping, so there are no hidden shipping fees to discount. The prices listed in our goimagine shop are the set prices for both the local pickup and delivery options. If you choose local pickup, we will contact you upon processing your order to schedule a pickup time. If you choose local pickup by mistake, please let us know so that we can make corrections to your order.
⭐ Return Policy:
Returns are accepted within 14 days from the day a package is received. The return and exchange window will begin on the day the item's delivery tracking number is recorded as delivered. (For local pickup customers, this window begins the day the item is picked up.) Once delivered, buyers have 14 days to request a return or exchange and an additional 14 days to pack and ship the item back to us. Buyers are responsible for return shipping costs. If the item is not returned in its original condition, the buyer is responsible for any loss in value. Otherwise, the buyer will receive a full refund for the cost of the actual item. Buyers are responsible for packing the item back into its original box or obtaining another box suitable for shipping the item safely. Refunds will be issued through Stripe in the form of the original payment. If the reason for a return/refund is out of the control of the seller and the buyer, such as a lost or damaged package, we will promptly investigate the issue with the delivery carrier and will make every effort to resolve the issue through their insurance guarantee. We encourage customers to contact us anytime even if the return/exchange window has passed. We may be able to resolve your issue by simply answering certain questions or concerns.
⭐ Detailed Listings:
To decrease the chances of returns and exchanges, we have made every effort to provide detailed listings and clear photographs that show multiple angles of our items. Please take the time to examine the photos closely and read our descriptions fully before making any final decisions. Our items are all handmade and some items are made of organic material, so we ask that you take into consideration the natural "imperfections" and variations that often occur in handcrafted and natural items. It's also important to understand that some of our items are left rustic on purpose. For example, we appreciate natural "wonky" shapes, cracks, knotholes, and inclusions in wood to where we often highlight them rather than hide them. We view natural "imperfections" as part of the beauty and unique design, so be sure to examine the listings closely because we try our best to show all angles of our pieces through our photographs, which can be enhanced using the magnifying zoom tool. We also provide customers with multiple ways to contact us directly, and we welcome any questions about our items.
⭐ Privacy Policy:
This Privacy Policy describes how and when we collect, use, and share information when you purchase an item from us, contact us, or otherwise use our services through goimagine.com or its related sites and services. This Privacy Policy does not apply to the practices of third parties that we do not own or control, including goimagine or any third party services you access through goimagine. You can reference the goimagine Terms & Conditions to learn more about its privacy practices: https://goimagine.com/terms-conditions/
Information We Collect
To fulfill your order, you must provide us with certain information (which you authorized goimagine to provide to us), such as your name, email address, postal address, payment information, and the details of the product that you’re ordering. You may also choose to provide us with additional personal information (for a custom order for example), if you contact us directly.
Why We Need Your Information and How We Use It
We rely on a number of legal bases to collect, use, and share your information, including:
to provide our services, such as when we use your information to fulfill your order
to settle disputes, or to provide customer support
when you have provided your affirmative consent, which you may revoke at any time, such as by signing up for a mailing list;
if necessary to comply with a legal obligation or court order or in connection with a legal claim, such as retaining information about your purchases if required by tax law;
as necessary for the purpose of our legitimate interests, if those legitimate interests are not overridden by your rights or interests, such as 1) providing and improving our services. We use your information to provide the services you requested and in our legitimate interest to improve our services; and 2) Compliance with the goimagine Seller Policy and Terms of Use. We use your information as necessary to comply with our obligations under the goimagine Seller Policy and Terms of Use.
Information Sharing and Disclosure
Information about our customers is important to our business. We share your personal information for very limited reasons and in limited circumstances. Your information will not be shared by us for any other reason than the reasons stated here:
goimagine.com. We share information with goimagine as necessary to provide you our services and comply with our obligations under both the goimagine Seller Policy and goimagine Terms of Use.
Service providers. We engage certain trusted third parties to perform functions and provide services to our shop, such as delivery companies. We will share your personal information with these third parties, but only to the extent necessary to perform these services.
Compliance with laws. We may collect, use, retain, and share your information if we have a good faith belief that it is reasonably necessary to: (a) respond to a legal process or to government requests; (b) enforce our agreements, terms and policies; (c) prevent, investigate, and address fraud and other illegal activity, security, or technical issues; or (d) protect the rights, property, and safety of our customers, or others.
Data Retention
Lightwell Cottage retains your personal information only for as long as necessary to provide you with our services and as described in our Privacy Policy. However, we may also be required to retain this information to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations, to resolve disputes, and to enforce our agreements. We generally keep your data for the following time period: 4 years. This data is not stored on a cloud or through any other third party service. It is safely stored on a password protected external hard drive and kept locked in a secure location that is only accessible to the owner of Lightwell Cottage. This data will never be shared with third parties who are not affiliated with the operation of goimagine. Please refer to goimagine’s policies to learn more about their own data retention policy.
Your Rights
If you reside in certain territories, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal information. While some of these rights apply generally, certain rights apply only in certain limited cases. We describe these rights below:
Access. You may have the right to access and receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you by contacting us using the contact information below.
Change, restrict, delete. You may also have rights to change, restrict our use of, or delete your personal information. Absent exceptional circumstances (like where we are required to store data for legal reasons) we will generally delete your personal information upon request.
Object. You can object to (i) our processing of some of your information based on our legitimate interests and (ii) receiving marketing messages from us after providing your express consent to receive them. In such cases, we will delete your personal information unless we have compelling and legitimate grounds to continue using that information or if it is needed for legal reasons.
Complain. If you wish to raise a concern about our use of your information (and without prejudice to any other rights you may have), you have the right to do so with your local data protection authority.
How to Contact Us
If you have any questions or concerns, you may contact Melissa Lightwell, owner of Lightwell Cottage, at inquiries@lightwellcottage.com. Alternately, you may mail Melissa Lightwell at: 10556 Combie Rd. PMB 6108, Auburn CA 95602.
How to Contact goimagine Support
If you have questions or concerns regarding access, corrections, or a desire to delete personal information held by goimagine, you may contact goimagine at https://help.goimagine.com/contact
