Two itty fitties

These were fast and fun.  Just cut them out of nice pine on the scroll saw then carved them a little with my x-acto knife and chisels.  I am going to paint them some bright pretty colors.

"Within this Wooden O"

My wooden O in front of my small Shakespeare section.

Things I have made, part 11

My new hat rack rocks!

Things I have made, part 8

Three pine circles and acrylic paint. One of my first experiments with painting. It was fun.

Things I have made, part 6

Everyone needs an ampersand on their bookshelf. It suggests a world of unlimited possibilites and wonderful ideas and beautiful things. But mostly it just looks cool.

Things I have made, part 4

My kids wanted their initials. J and H wanted them in dragon shapes. E and H weren't quite so picky. Creating the dragon patterns took a bit of thought and a lot of sketches. I cut them out with my scroll saw out of select pine.

Things I have made, part 3

Isn't this just the cutest little chair you ever did see? Here it is when I made it.

And here it is today, working hard on the bookshelf, where it is a fulltime bookend/shelf support.

I just made it out of cheap pine. Cut it out on the scroll saw, put it together with glue and brads.

Things I have made, part 2: Wood rocks!

Or, more correctly in this context, wooden rocks rock.

So, Laughter's spoons below may be cool, but they take a LOT of work. These don't.

I got the idea to make wooden rocks from some pictures I saw on the internet - hardwood chunks, cut and sanded into faceted shapes suitable for stacking. So I made some. I had three kinds of wood to work with - apricot, from some trees in our side yard that didn't make it; cypress, from the front yard; and sycamore, from the back yard. After making faceted shapes and playing with them (I let the kids play with them too), I decided to round some off to look more like river rocks.

These are made from apricot and finished with polyurethane.



After I finished those and made the little basket thingy, I thought they would look better in a clear bowl. So see below:



These are sanded but not finished. The lighter colored pieces are cypress. They smell great, but the pitch in the center makes them impossible to polyurethane. I have done a few with wax, and that works well.

Here is another view of the same pile:

The advantages of making wooden rocks:

1) You only need a band saw and a disc sander. Or a belt sander.

2) You don't have to follow any pattern.

The disadvantage:

You may become preoccupied with wood and finding time to sand. At least I did. They were like crack. Or chocolate.

Things I have made, part 1

This is a menorah I made for a friend at work. I used aromatic cedar and I cut it out on my scroll saw. The design was inspired by several items of Judaica and is meant to evoke the Jerusalem skyline of centuries past. I think it turned out quite nice. The holes for the candles are drilled on top and you can't see them in this picture.