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!! 

Happy Holidays! - Lego Charlie Brown Christmas Edition

Wishing everyone a belated Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year to Come!!

Alkaline Trio Laptop Vinyl

At work we do a fair amount of work with vinyl decals. We almost always cut and apply decals to our prototypes instead of silkscreening them. If you've ever seen how vinyl works, you know that there is a lot of waste. Well I always thought it was pretty cool, and asked if I could have any of the scraps that would otherwise be thrown away.

I've done a few small stickers for my sketchbook - like a canadian flag and a lego man, just by hand cutting them out with an exacto knife. I'd been wanting to make something cool for Jerome's new work laptop for a while. There are a ton of awesome  vinyl decals that play on the lit mac logo, and I was looking to do something similar, but different than what I had seen. A few weeks ago he went to an Alkaline Trio concert, and had gotten a sticker to put on his laptop. It turned out to be way to big though, so I came up with an alternative that would give a cool glowing effect. The center skull is on the light and so it glows when the computer is on. And the black vinyl blocks out the rest of the light.  

Saskatchewan Roughrider Android

Our good friends moved away from us last week, and in honour of their move, I attempted to recreate our friend Jesse - an avid Roughrider's fan in Android form.