Ball Vase

This was my second project on the lathe. Again, I started with a block from a 4x4 and cut it down to a smooth cylinder. It was a very simple, but relaxing project. I had forgotten how much of a stress reducer turning wood can be.

Mini Honey Pot

I purchased myself a lathe for my birthday! I've been saving my personal money for something special and when I saw an awesome deal on a lathe come up on a local classified website, I had to jump on it. I have not used a lathe for over 11 years. My only experience was working in the high school wood shop after school and receiving some occasional coaching from the teacher.

 

I used a small section of a 4x4 post I had in the corner of my garage to get the feel for the tools again. I simply gauged it down to a cylinder and hollowed out the end.

 I started shaping the cylinder with no real plan for what I was creating. When I got to this point, I decided it was looking like a tea cup on a saucer. As I was tapering the base of the cup, I actually broke the saucer part clear off with a careless tool maneuver. After the saucer base broke, I decided the cup looked a little bit more like a honey pot and that the cuts I had made to eventually cut the saucer from the stock looked a lot like a lid. That is when I changed plans. I finished off the pot portion and then shaped the lid individually.

 I think it turned out amazing for being the first project after 11 years of woodturning!

Lucy's Treasure Box

 I built this oak treasure box for Lucy for Christmas. I had made Jenna a treasure box for Christmas when she was 4, so I decided to do the same for Lu. With each project I make, I try to push myself to improve in either difficulty, design, or overall quality of workmanship. For Lucy's box, I decided to keep the design simple, but built it with lap joints instead of miter or butt joints that I have always used. It required much more precision than previous projects and I enjoyed building it.

 

I had to router out various depths on specific sides of each piece so that the box would fit together perfectly without gaps. I also decided to sink the base into the box rather than having a visible base at the bottom of the box. Here are some of the individual pieces of the box after they were shaped at the router table and how they all fit together with the base sunk into the bottom of the box.

 Once I glued the box together, I built a lid and routered out some space on the back for the hinges. I purchased some small round magnets at a craft store that I used in place of a latch or lock. I used a little wooden heart in place of a locket. I lined the inside of the box with a forest green felt. This was a rewarding project to build something slightly more technical than what I am used to making.

Chili Cook Off Trophies 2013

For this year's Fall Chili Cook-off, I was asked to make multiple trophies for various chili categories, as well as trophies for pumpkin carving. Rather than make multiple large trophies, I made 3 top place trophies similar to trophies in year's past and then 10 smaller "golden spoon" trophies. For the golden spoon trophies, I simply cut out ten blocks on the table saw, routered a decorative edge, and stained them. I took metal spoons that I had picked up at a thrift store and spray painted gold and attached to the plaques. They were simple but elegant, and well received at the event.

Our New Welcome Sign

In the process of remodelling our house, Karla and I wanted to make our own piece of art to welcome our guests.  Karla found a similar idea for a welcome sign made out of old barn wood on Pintrest.  I don't have barn wood, but I do have an old fence outside :).  Actually, the two black boards are old fence boards, mostly for the texture (which can't be seen in the picture).  The main part of the sign was made from 2 cedar fence boards straight from Lowes ($1.49 each).  Karla used her Silhouette machine to make stencils and painted the words on the wood.  I have to admit that both Karla and I have stopped on multiple occasions to admire our latest creation!

Rebecca's Little Treasure Box

A friend of mine who I hadn't seen in years connected with me online and asked me to help him build a treasure box for a little girl named Rebecca, the 5 yr old daughter of a good friend of his.  We had a great time building this project together and catching up.  The box was made of oak with some light molding for trim.  The "R" was cut out on a scroll saw from a piece of oak that had been planed down to around 1/8th inch

 

 

The words "Rebecca's Little Treasures" were wood-burned by hand.  It took me roughly 1.5 hours because of the fine lines in the font.  It looks pretty awesome though against the dark wood and totally fits the style of the box!

 

 

 

Every little princess deserves her own felt lined treasure box!

 

 

Thanks for this opportunity James, it was great reconnecting with you!

 

Spain, Arkansas & the Philippines Mission Plaque

 This is now the 3rd LDS mission plaque I have created.  Karla's Aunt had seen the plaque I created for my in-laws and asked me if I she could "order" one for her in-laws for Christmas. I was excited at the prospect...and even more excited when she told me one of the missions was in the Philippines.  At that point, I decided I had to give it a try-I had done Hawaii, how much harder could a few more islands be, right?

I woodburned all of the mission names by hand on the side panel below their respective flags. 

You can probably tell that the three mission shapes ranged in difficultly, with Arkansas being the easiest and the Philippines being the most difficult.  I'll had to admit that I didn't recognize Spain's outline, because I am so used to seeing it with Portugal filling in the gap on on the west coast.

  

 The Philippines was the great challenge of this project, but it was personally very fulfilling.  The tracing, cutting and assembling of the 30 largest islands took many hours over a period of a few weeks.  I wanted to be sure that if any Philippino looked at this cut out, they would be impressed with the accuracy of every island represented.  Go ahead and check a map!  The tough part of that is that most of these islands could hide under a quarter, many under a penny or dime-and islands don't lend themselves to any geometric corners or straight lines.  Needless to say, my fingers were within 1 inch of the scroll saw blade at any given time.  Many of the islands were so small that once the final cut was made to release them from the main block, they fell down into the interior of the machine and I would have to dig through the saw dust and recover them.  

I mounted all of the islands on a thin piece of poplar the same way I did with the Hawaii cut out I made in 2009 (posted previously).

 The flags were printed and mounted to small boards to elevate them from the side panel.

 I have used this scripture, Matthew 28:19 as the scripture for all three mission plaques thus far.  I have them engraved at a local trophy shop on a brass square.  It is exciting to see the influence a single family can have across the globe from missionary service.

This project gave me some extra confidence in doing some technically challenging pieces.  Overall, I am very pleased with the way it turned out. (Seen below without the shadowbox)