Sunday, December 31, 2017

Christmas Presents!

Yes this is after Christmas but since people who the gifts were made for could possibly see this I have waited till they have all been delivered before posting this. Any way I made a bunch (7) of these Joy free standing plaques. The pattern is from Scroller the sister site to The Winfield Collection which I made the Huge Joy which is 10 Feet tall. Click the word Scroller to be taken to the pattern web page. Now this pattern is a downloadable one. You end up with a PDF of the pattern. So you get it as soon as you pay. They have just started having this feature recently. I much prefer PDF to paper any day of the week.

Anyway I used Curly Maple for Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus. I use Poplar for JOY and I just stained the Joy portion to get three different wood colors going. The stain was Medium Walnut Danish Oil for Joy. I used Natural Danish Oil for both the Curly Maple and the base which ish Pine.

This I consider my foray into shaping wood. I do want to get started doing Intarsia and I figured if I rounded over the letters in a way that would be like doing Intarsia. Well not really but I used my Dremel to do the initial round over with a course sanding sanding drum. Then went on to hand sand with different grits till it was smooth and no scratches from sanding.

Here are the pictures. Here are 6 of them lined up


Now just one


Now just the bottom showing my branding. Speaking of this I can tell you how I made this branding. I read about this and made my own way to do this that was cheap. I created the logo in Inkscape and then I can make it what ever size I want in relation to the project it is for. I then have a special sheet of paper that I created by taping wax paper to an actual piece of paper. I then put that in my inkjet printer and print it. The ink will not dry right away on the wax paper so you have time to take the wax paper and place it on your project and the ink is absorbed right into the wood and does not smudge. You could in reality print in color and it would work just fine but choose your colors wisely in relation to the wood color. Always remember when you do create the logo you need to reverse the image because you will get the reverse of what ever it is you print. So if I did not reverse the image before printing it would come out backwards. Any way here is the logo I use.


Now all that is left is to wrap them and bring them with me to visit family and hope they like them!

Here is the Huge Joy Sign I made 3 years ago in 2014. It took 3 full sheets of plywood to do and it is 10 feet tall.



Thanks for checking out my site and following along with me.



Monday, December 25, 2017

Friday, December 1, 2017

Found this little gem in my shop

This is one of my wood working projects from shop class. Back when I went to school we had shop classes that would give you a feel for a trade. There were as I remember printing and ceramics for 7th grade and wood and metal working in 8th grade. This is the only thing remaining from those shop classes. It is a shame that schools no longer have these classes. My favorites were in order wood working, metal working, printing and then ceramics. Wood working we made a bunch of stuff but I only kept one thing. I do believe everything else I made was given to people. But this baby was mine! It has been in boxes and out in my shop for years now. It is a book shelf lamp combo deal.

I have carried this one around with me since 1975. That makes this around 42 years old I was 14 at the time. I can still see the grade I received for it a 92. I do not remember what tools where used but I imagine a band saw, sanders, drills, wood burning tool,  and maybe a table saw? I don't actually remember. I do know I did attempt some projects outside of school as I liked wood working so much but then I stopped for many years before finding the scroll saw. It was the lack of tools that caused me to stop. Dad only had some tools and after having had access to the tools in school I just stopped since I am sure I kept thinking I need this tool to do this thing and that tool to do this other thing.

I do remember one other project which was a pencil holder shaped like a fish jumping out of water. I have no clue what ever happened to that one. That was probably my second favorite thing done in the class.

This one though I remember all the excitement that came with this one! I was not really a Mets fan my grandfather was. I was not into watching sports as a kid. I still really don't watch unless it is European Cycling. That is now what I pay attention to. That is hard to watch here in the USA except for the TDF. So I read and follow along online.

I think I will redo the lamp fixture and get this working once again. I know my wife is going to (NOT) love this one.

Anyway to the pictures!

A little hard to see but right there is 92 my grade. Written in pencil and has faded over the years






Full (Christ)mas mode

Just a note to let you know I am still here.

I have been working hard lately on my Christmas stuff. I won't be posting pictures of anything till after they are all delivered. People may see what I am doing before hand spoiling the surprise. The disadvantage of a blog certain people actually read. Maybe not, but not taking chances. So you won't hear much from me, or rather see much, till after Christmas.