Christmas Gifts I made 2015

Ok So I was pretty much unable to post any pictures of these things I have been working on since just about everyone these are intended for can most likely find these posts. Maybe not but did not want to take the chance that they may have been seen.

I had some issues with one of them where I made a goof up had to get more wood and then found out the pattern had printed smaller then had to get more wood. When I was finally finished the panels I had redone where a slightly different shade and so I had to stain it much darker then I wanted to. In fact I never stain I just use natural danish oil when I finish so I was a little upset but I had no time to try and find the same shade of wood.

Work was trying I ended up having to work an entire weekend on a network switch outage and I lost two crucial days and pretty much demanded two comp days of which I was able to get only one day off. But I was able to get everything done in time despite that. I was worried about the oil drying but it did.

So here is all the pieces with 6 pieces not here. I miss counted the slats for the glue up but I was able to cut more.

Now here is the stained one which came out alright. This is from Sheila Landry Designs just click the lick to go to the site to purchase the pattern or you can browse all the patterns they have. They are very talented artists.

Here is my other one which is also from Sheila Landry Designs just click the lick to go to the site to purchase the pattern or you can browse all the patterns they have. They are very talented artists.

What the backside looks like.

Thanks for looking!

Halloween 2015

I seem to have forgotten I had to finish this one. It is for Halloween. It is a Sue Mey Design. A Halloween tree with ornaments. It slides apart for easy storage so the tree becomes two pieces and is nice and flat for when it is not Halloween.

This did not take long to cut but took some time to paint the small ornaments. The longest might be tying all the little strings to hang those ornaments! I tried fishing line but the line was just so hard to see that I was going crazy and thinking I needed new glasses. That may be true but when you can't see the string because it is designed not to be seen by fish. Well you know what I mean.

Thanks for looking!
Jim

Going to be quite for a while

Hmm you won't be seeing much from me here till after Christmas most likely simply because this year I'm going to make most of my Gifts and almost everyone getting something has the ability to see all this. Whether or not they actually see my stuff posted here I can't answer but they could.


So that means I can't post pictures of what I am doing.....

For my birthday I have received a planer. The Dewalt 734.

I like it very much. Already used to make wood thinner so that I could scroll it! I also purchased this Digital readout from Wixey for it which enables me to accurately plane the wood the same thickness.

That is available from www.wixey.com.

North Carolina State Fair

The Ten Commandments  from Sheila Landry Designs - Pattern by Keith Fenton

You can find the pattern here: Sheila Landry Designs

My work took 3rd place in this years NC State Fair. Not too shabby for my first entry into the competition. The ones that 1st and 2nd were very nice!

This was the first place finisher. Sorry but where they had these the light was coming in and causing glare so it is hard to see but a fine job of cutting this fret work. There are an awful lot of inside cuts on this one. A well deserved first place spot.

A very nice Noah's ark nicely done!

Then my Ten Commandments

Here is a much better shot of when I finished this back over he summer

Thanks for looking!

Tree Puzzle

I actually cut this free standing tree puzzle  while ago, over 6 years ago, but it just sat under my work bench and I decided to finally paint it. The pattern is available from

scrollsawer.com/2009/08/12/quick-easy-tree-puzzle/

just click the website name and it will take you to the tree puzzle area. There are other patterns available here:

scrollsawer.com/category/patterns/

It is a fun puzzle to paint simply because all you have to do is pick a brown for the tree part. Then pick 5 random green paints. Take all the tree leaf pieces which happens to be 50 pieces. So I mixed up the pieces that will be green then picked out 5 groups of ten. Painted those 5 groups each a green. When you are done you have the colors randomly about. It makes it harder to actually put together since you can't go by the color since they where mixed up before painting.

It contains 59 pieces I did not like the piece that is supposed to help it stand because it would cause it to rock. So I did not include it in this picture. It free stands better without it.

I used 1 inch thick pine for this. Since I cut this so long ago I honestly do not remember what size blade I used. But I could say it was my standard a #5 ultra reverse flying dutchman. After cutting out the edges where rounded with my dremel using the round over router bit.

Another person leaving at work so another name plate done

Well they just keep dropping like flies at work. People tired of the games and shenanigans by management and how they abuse us. So people are leaving in droves!

This is 1" Red Oak for the back piece and Poplar for the name.

Halloween 2015 Cuts

Spent some time in the shop making some Halloween decorations. These I painted as my wife requested them to be. The BOO was simple one color.

This one TRICK OR TREAT she requested to look like candy corn. This is my effort in that. It was more work then it should have been since I don't consider my self a painter so I know I could have done it with less taping. Next time I will know how to save time. I tend to not paint my stuff but these came out better for it. More looking Halloweenish? Is that a word?

Till next time....

Some name plates

My Manager at work is leaving. At least this time he is leaving to get away from the mess. My last manager went away because of restructuring.  I was manager-less for two days after that one.

So anyway I made him a name plate to take on to his next position. I struggle with clear coats and getting them on properly. I am not satisfied with this finish yet. I will most likely see if I can correct the flaws in it before he gets in later this week. At the worst it will look like it does now. That is why I prefer oils no mess no fuss. But for somethings clear coats is better now if only I could master clear coats.

I created these in Inkscape then print them out and apply to the wood.  It is a free program and for what I do it has more options then I know what to do with! Click the link to see more about it.



Made from 1" Red Oak for the backer to stand up nicely and 1/4" White Poplar for the actual name.

Then a follow co-worker is also departing this week. So I made him one too. He has a nice short name so this is a little small.

Dragon Encounter

OK so I only took 5 years to cut this one. I finally put the pattern to wood and cut. I was not ready when I first saw the pattern to even think I could cut it back then. I was going through all the old magazines and looking at patterns to see if I could find anything to cut and when I saw this one I remembered wanting to cut it but was too afraid my skills would not allow me. So here we are 5 years later and I finally had the confidence ( patience ) to cut it out.

The pattern is by Jacob Fowler and it was from the very good magazine Creative Woodworks and Crafts, which is no longer in business, September 2010. So if you can find that issue you will find the pattern in it. Don't ask for this one it is not mine to give it is still under copyright.

Some Cuts from this past Weekend

Two word art cuttings I did this weekend. The first is LOVE font is Copper Black. The pattern by myself. Wood is Poplar.

The second is for my Daughter. It is her favorite game and has been for ever. Font is Litecraft, wood is poplar, The pattern is by myself.

Mermaid with a crown

I was asked by my brother-in law if I could make a mermaid for his son. So I found a nice one on Sue Mey's website and purchased the pattern and did a stack cut of it. I put it on two different backgrounds and I'll send my nephew the one on the oval.

The actual mermaid was cut from 1/8" baltic birch with Flying Dutchman Spiral Flat End #3 and finished with Watco Danish Oil Natural.

The backers are pine with Flying Dutchman Ultra Reverse #5 and finished with Watco Danish Oil medium Walnut.

The 10 Commandments

My latest work from Sheila Landry Designs - Pattern by Keith Fenton

You can find this here: Sheila Landry Designs

I took my time and spent about 2 weeks working on this as time permitted and did the one from my previous post simply because I wanted something completed. And the America plaque was just an evening worth of cutting. But this is my favorite now. This one is not going to work it is hanging in my living room!

Taken outside

The back side. I'm just as proud of how it looks from this side as I am from the front.

Now hanging on my living room for all to see!

Thanks for looking!

Another Wordart Cutting

This is another of my AMERICA wordart themes. I have some of these that I have yet to cut. But this one is done after a few delays and pushing it to the side to work other projects and hopefully I'll be completing more stuff in the future. I had a couple of disappointing things that I either messed up or still working on. I have a 10 commandments set that is two tablets that I am working on. Hopefully that will be done next week. But you just never know.

It is cut from pine using my own pattern created in Inkscape. Large font is Angsana New and the small is Park Avenue BT

WordART Veteran United States Navy

OK So my 81 year old Dad had a myocardial infarction (To use older folks a heart attack). He had bypass surgery and is struggling with getting back on his feet. So to cheer him up I designed this word art for him. He is a carver not a scroller so when I go there in a week or so I will present this to him. When I was there last week I showed him the design and he was excited about it. When I came home it warmed up enough that I could cut it out and get it finished. So now if the weather will hold I will bring it to him in a week or so.

I cut this out of a piece of 1/2 inch Poplar for the backing. The letters are cut from 1/4 inch Red Oak. I finished it with  Minwax Golden Oak Stain.

I have seen these designs various places and was intrigued by the simple design and after playing with inkscape I figured out a way to produce a pattern to make this. I had the two designs one for VETERAN and one for Unites States Navy.

About the only thing that someone may say is that it is made from two pieces of wood that you have to glue together.

So I am going to post my patterns here. This is 15 inches x 5 inches and you will have no problem cutting this on a 16 inch saw. It is what I used. The pattern is in 2 pieces that you will have to tape together but I have placed two markers on each page to help put them together.

What I did was to cut them with scissors so that there would be no blank and make the overlap as small as possible. Line them up and tape them together Then fold them over and use a glue stick to have the over lap stick together. That why when cutting the pattern won't come off once you cut through the tape holding the edges together.

The first pattern is the background the second are the letter pieces you will have to cut out and glue to the back piece.

UPDATE:
I actually updated these drawings so that they are a little bit better than before. Now the RED outline is continuous rather the broken. Learning all the time!

Veteran United States Navy Word Art Back Part 1
Veteran United States Navy Word Art Back Part 2
Veteran United States Navy Word Art Text Part 1
Veteran United States Navy Word Art Text Part 2