Safety is job one.

Be it human or canine, shop safety is always important! Unless your a Guinea pig.....I'd love to feed those things through the planer....

Stuffed Bear

Cut this one out today since it wasnt my weekend. Almost done except for the glue-up and the finish. This was made for one of Lilly's teachers who has a niece on the the way. The woods in this one are Paduk, Cedar, Maple, and walnut.


The nose, eyes, and letters in the block were inlayed.

Cars Themed Intarsia Piece, Finished

Finished the cars themed piece.  I could have probably added more, but for an infants room, I didnt want it to be cluttered.

All in all took me about 6 hours of work time total.  Mostly made from poplar with an oak frame and birch matting, Finished in 5 coats of laquer.

I like how this one turned out and it got the stamp of approval from Lilly :)

Cars Themed Intarsia Piece, Post 3

Lightning is starting to come together.  Had to put him off for a day or so to finish some other projects and start two new ones. What you cant see in photos is how exactly intarsia pieces work depth wise.  The way this piece is made uses thickness to give the illusion of depth. 

The very front right side of the piece is 1/2" thick wood.  It slowly tapers down to just about 5/16" at the left side. Before I start any intarsia, I use colored markers on the design so I know what pieces of wood are what thickness when finished.  This saves me a lot of grief when cutting out the pieces and rounding them off.

Name Plaques

So I make little keychains from wood for friends and such, some people buy them here and there to. But I had a request to make them rather large...3" x 6" or so.   So, I took some ceder I had laying around and voila.

Simple Bowl

Another quick project to relax with while making.  This piece is made from Maple and Walnut scraps I had laying around.  The type of turning is called "segmented".  Where by you decide what wood you wish to use, throw in a little geomatry for angles and such, stack it, glue it, turn it, and voila.

This is EXTREME segmented turning: Extreme Segmented Turning .....It starts getting interesting at 2:40 or so.

Il stick to my little bowl....No chain saw required.

Cars Themed Intarsia Piece, Post 2

So we started Lightning McQueen today (see below). TowMater has his first coat of Finish on him and is currently drying. All in all I have about 4 hours of work into the project.  Once Lightning is done, then I do the background, assemble the whole piece and add a Birch Board backing.