Crusty, I hesitate to make these comments, even though you asked, as I don't want to be seen as attacking your web site. Believe me, I'm not. I've also been in the position of requesting comments on a site. Having said that, these are criticisms, just suggestions..
You did a lot of work to showcase your work, and it deserves to be shown. It is very impressive. I do have some comments on your site - some are rather technical and some are style. (Take the style with a grain of salt as my wife says I have no sense of style.)
I agree that the text should have more contrast with the background and that there should be a "Back", and perhaps a "Home" button on each page.
The navigation images on each page are inventive, especially a cruise ship for the shipping link. Even so, I would make the word Shipping, etc., visible without having to mouse over the link. It tells people that the image is a link and they don't have to try each one to see where they are going.
The pictures on your projects page could be optimized to load faster. Kepy is right, the project page loads very slowly, mainly because there are many images and the images are scaled by the browser. For example, the first thumbnail is downloaded at 238px x 276px and is scaled to 75x75 by the browser. If you make it actually 75x75, it will require only 8% of the bandwidth required for the 238x276 image. Applying this to all the thumbnails will definitely decrease download time.
On the contacts and shipping pages, I would consider removing the mouse-over images If you happen to mouse over them, the contact or shipping info is obscured.
Crusty, these comments are made with the best of intentions and are not meant to be a personal attack. You did a great job on the website but sometimes an outsider sees things that the creator doesn't see.
Keep up the good work,
Jim
