Spring Project Progress

This spring has been a busy one, so I thought I'd share some of the projects I've been working on. 

To begin with, I've been working on growing this little baby who keeps getting bigger and bigger! But in between resting, walking and making sure she's well taken care of, I've been working on some other kinds of projects.

I made Jerome a patch for his backpack

And turned him a pestle for his Chinois for his birthday

I formed 14 new Shaker boxes - I'll do a separate post on that soon, with videos and everything!

I did do marquetry for the top of one of them though - it involved a lot of small pieces and a ton of scotch tape! 

But it turned out pretty well I think

I turned this Couronne Stick which is used in knitting somehow.. It was a present for my Mum, so I guess I'll see the results sometime soon! 

I started a project to combine marquetry and turning, with the intent to bend and glue the strip around the tealight holder. There were some wrinkles in the process, so it's not done quite yet. 

I made this pair of matching photo frames for the Grandma's to be. 

Then I went home to Ottawa for a few weeks, where we did lots of walking and more projects. We even saved this teeny tiny turtle from being run over by bicycles! 

Mum and I made some baby blankets and clothes - under close supervision of Rupert and Baxter

We experimented dying and painting some onesies

My mum gave us this awesome I-spy quilt she made for the baby with all sorts of fun animals and pictures to find and teach the baby with! 

I got to visit with Jerome's parents, and my Grandma, and lots of friends who threw surprise baby showers! I somehow didn't get any pictures of those though! 

Winter Project Progess

Over the past few months, I've been kicking it into a bit higher gear in terms of working on projects. Trying to get a lot of partially finished projects completed, as well as get some news ones underway and done. I thought I'd just post some recap pictures of some of the things I've done since Christmas instead of trying to do a bunch of posts more in depth. I hope you enjoy! 

First up was doing the marquetry for the top of the shaker box I made several years ago. I'd been trying to decide between a few patterns and so not getting anywhere, so I eventually just picked this one. It's Link and Epona from Zelda. And I couldn't resist hiding a little Triforce as a surprise under the lid. This is the box with the cut marquetry before assembly and finishing. 

Here is the top of the box completed with finish.

And here's the underside of the lid. 

I hadn't turned anything in about a year, and wanted a simple project to wet my feet again. I decided to go for a doorstop as the front door kept slamming in the wind. I figured any mistakes wouldn't be noticed at all! I chose a random piece of wood from my stash, I have no idea what it is, but the grain and colour are quite beautiful. 

I also spent a bunch of time making a new "tower" of giraffes. (apparently that's what a group of them are called!) The fabric I used to get is discontinued, so I tried three new ones this time. They're all quite cute. 

I've been watching quite a few YouTube woodworkers, and I'd seen a few recently making Jointer's Mallets, which are big beefy all wood mallets that you use for chiseling or persuading joints to fit together. I figured I'd try one out, as using a tool you've made is always very satisfying! 

A better view of the nice wood grain - also from the mystery pile! 

I had this marquetry cut already from the Turned Tealight project I did. This was the inverse of the image. It seemed to nice to toss, so I'd kept it, and when I came across it, I figured I'd might as well turn it into a small wall picture. 

In case you're wondering about the sudden incentive to get my butt in gear, we are expecting a baby in August, so I figure I'd better get as many projects as I can done now, before I get too big, and then later, have my hands quite full with a new big project!! 

Marquetry Dog Portrait

Last Christmas we did our usual gift exchange at work. I got my co-worker Ann Marie, and immediately knew what I wanted to do. She had this beautiful smart dog named Tank who was one of our office dogs and never left her side. I wanted to make a marquetry picture of him. 

I had a few pictures of him that she had shared with me over the years, and I thought this one would be a really nice one to do as a portrait. 

I printed the photo to the scale I wanted and traced the colour changes in his fur as best I could. I then traced those lines onto tracing paper to use as my template. 

This is what it looked like after I'd cut all the parts and set it into the background. I cover it all with tape as I go so no parts will fall out or move around, but it makes for a big surprise at the end when you take it all off and get to see how you've done! 

Luckily wood comes in tons of shades and textures of browns, so it wasn't too hard to find several different ones that would give him the definition I was looking for. The tricky part was getting each colour in the right place so it would have the right look. 

I was still learning how to cut so many different colours, so I didn't get my pieces perfectly tight. Luckily when you add glue all the pieces expand, so I didn't have any big gaps. 

Here he is just after being glued but before sanding and finishing. 

I always love how much richer the finish makes the piece look. 

Unfortunately Tank passed away about 6 months later. He is greatly missed by everyone at the office, and was such a wonderful big guy.

Lightbulb Birds

This was a fun project I finished a while ago. It was from an issue of Cloth Paper scissors. I made one to their suggestion, then modified it to make the penguin. Can you guess what the base of the birds was?!

If you guessed burnt out light-bulbs, you win a prize! After this initial step a lot of paper clay covering and sculpting was involved and then painting. It was a first for me doing much of either, so it was quite a learning experience.

But I think they turned out to be pretty cute. 

And are quite the pair of feathered friends! 

Combining Turning and Marquetry - A Cavalier Tealight Holder

This was an experiment of sorts I did attempting to combine turning and marquetry. Several people in our marquetry club had shown pieces along the same lines, including plates and boxes. I decided to attempt a tealight holder. The first step was to turn the main body. I cut a small inset around the middle for the veneer, and drilled a hole in the top for the tealight. I don't seem to have any pictures, but it was the first turning I'd done in a while, so it was a bit of a challenge. 

The next challenge was laying out a design that would fit around the circumference, and that you wouldn't see the join line. I chose two Cavalier King Charles Spaniels with a butterfly. I cut them stacked, so that I actually got two copies of it, but in opposite colourways. 

Here's a more detailed shot. The height was trimmed to the exact height of the inset, and the length was slightly longer than the circumference. 

It was at this point that I realized that I'd made my life harder than necessary. While the veneer bends quiet well, especially when covered with glue, the very tight radius I'd chosen, made it very finicky to bend without it cracking. In the end, after quite a while, I got it to work. It gets glued in two stages. During the first step, I put glue on all but the last half inch on each side, to get the majority of the piece in place. When it was dry, I put a straight edge over the overlapping end bits, and made a cut with an exacto-knife through both of the pieces at once. This gives a really tight, perfect fit. I then glued the last bits. Rubber bands are the only real way to clamp it in place. I didn't have enough hands while trying to get everything aligned to take step by step photos, but am planning another similar project, where I'll show this more clearly. 

I stamped my initials in the bottom as a signature. Then added several coats of Waterlox Finish, and buffed it on the Beall Buffing system.

And this is how it turned out. I really like how no matter which way you look at it, there's something to see. So in the middle of the table, it's interesting for everyone. I definitely learned a lot doing this project, including many things I'd do differently to improve on it, and am quite excited to give it another go! 

Winnie the Pooh Marquetry Picture

So it's been a while since I've posted any projects here, but not for lack of making stuff. Things got put on hold for a bit while Jerome and I went on an epic adventure to southeast Asia! (You can click here to read more about this if you're interested) But now that we're back, and have organized all our photos I have a back log of projects that I'll be sharing over the next while. 

I thought I'd start with a pretty simple one I made for a friends baby. Growing up, I had a wood version of this image that had been my Mum's and I always thought it was so cute. So I decided to make a marquetry version. It's a very simple process, just put the two colours of veneer on top of each other, and cut through both to get the perfect fit. I glued it to some plywood, added matching veneer around the edges and back, as well as a hook hole at the back, a few coats of Waterlox and voila!