Some Stuff from the Holidays

When I took this picture the camera told me that the stormtrooper blinked.

I actually spent a fair amount of time at the lathe in December and I even have some things to show for it.  I suspect that most woodworkers have the same experience at least one December in their lives as they prepare gifts for friends and family.

I started the month by demonstrating turning at the Guild booth at the Sundog Arts & Entertainment Faire.  I  found myself with 5 hours of time to fill and I was determined to make the most of it.

The first thing I made was this little bowl from a leftover piece of Manitoba Maple.  It is finished with mineral oil and bees wax and measures just over 3 1/2 " across.

Next was this pen made from padauk and finished with Hutt Perfect Pen Polish.  After the pen I moved on to a small natural edge bowl.  I was almost done when there was a 'tick-BANG' and there were pieces all over the floor.  Fortunately there was no one watching at the time except for a couple of Guild members.  On to another pen.

This one was made from Alumilite casting resin, the 5 minute stuff, mixed with yellow dye and swirled with black.

With time winding down I moved on to what I thought was going to be a lidded box,  As I was roughing it out I stopped the piece of mountain ash I was turning to check my progress.

What I saw was this cool swirl of bark and the grain around it.  I was so taken with it that I decided to leave it the way it was.

When I took it home I drilled some holes in the top and stuck some tea lights in them.

After that I turned my attention to making my wife some Christmas presents.  I wanted to do something to help her out with her sewing habit, so I ordered some seam ripper kits from William Wood-Write,

Single ripper, closed, in Alumalite

Double ripper, open, Kingwood

Ripper & stiletto, open, unknown burl

If you've never seen one of these things before, let me warn you that they are nasty little weapons that would never be allowed on an airplane.  If your wife is mad at you, do not make one of these as a suck up gift.  If she's not in a good mood when you hand it to her you are taking a risk.

On the safer side, I also made her this bracelet.

It is made from maple and Indonesian rosewood.  I should have taken pictures while I was doing it because this thing was a struggle from start to finish, and I could have made a long blog post on this alone.  One thing I will talk about though, is the first of the problems I encountered.  Of course, when I cut the segments, I didn't get the angle right.  Fortunately I made my angle a little too narrow instead of too wide, so when I went to glue the two halves together I had to sand the inside corners, not the outside, to make them fit.

If you look at the maple piece that is vertical at the front, it looks the same as the others, but the one opposite on the inside is quite a bit narrower.  The tricky part was to stop sanding at the right point.  I guess I lucked out.

My wife was happy with the bracelet and and the seam rippers, although she did have a little constructive criticism about the rippers.  I will definitely make use of her advice when I make some more.