Christmas - What are you making as gifts ?

[Andy Dingley]

Let's hear your suggestions then

[jo4hn]

I'm doing toys mainly. Will soon post some photos on apbw. Ducks an' elephants an' wagons an' airplanes an' an'... Gotta start on another doll cradle soon.

And one other item: a collapsible clothes rack for SIL. Maybe I can find that and photo it. Anybody else lose gifties that you make or buy ahead of time?

mahalo, jo4hn

[Swingman]

I've got a couple of small walnut hall tables to do as gifts for two near/dear relatives. One of them is SWMBO's Uncle Teet and Aunt MaryAnn who, being instrumental in me scoring a couple hundred board feet of the finest black, Arkansas walnut for nothing, deserve my very best effort on their behalf.

I'll also probably do a few granite or marble trivets, as I've done in the past ... easy to make and folks seem to really like them. This year instead of oak, they'll be black walnut, obviously.

[Daniel Grieves]

Hoping to make the mother-in-law a "now-playing" CD rack to hang next to her stereo.

[Liam]

I am making toy boats for the bathtub from dimensional pine for the kiddies. I am also turning Christmas ornaments, boxed in sets of three, for sale in my shop. Also, for winter, I am making a pine tree shaped snow depth indicator for the yard.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Trivets Wood spatula Boxes.

Most young girls have 18" dolls so beds, table & chairs, high chair are appreciated.

[rcook5]

More carving than straight woodworking, as usual. A hand-done sign for my sister's new house, complete with birds and squirrels.

Several sets of chip-carved coasters.

Of course some silver-and-stone jewelry for my wife.

Perhaps some other stuff. I'm still making decisions.

--RC That which does not kill us makes us stronger. --Friedrich Nietzsche Never get your philosophy from some guy who ended up in the looney bin. -- Wiz Zumwalt

[John Girouard]

Last year I made a bunch of wine bottle holders to go with my homemade wine. REALLY quick and easy. Basically an 11 or so inch of ~1 x ~2 stock with both ends mitred at 45 degrees in the same direction, with a

1.25" hole drilled approximately an inch or two down from the top, parallel to the mitres. Here's a quick ASCII art of what it looks like from the side, with a bottle in it:

[John Girouard]

I think I meant beveled... not mitred. They pretty much looked like what you see on this page:

[David E. Penner]

For the LOML:

- set of 5 turned candlestick holders ranging in height from 7" to 13"

- a small display cabinet with a door (20"H x 4"W x 4"D) in the shape of a house. This will be hung on the wall. The cabinet has a base coat of cream coloured paint. I then put a top coat of blac acrylic. Before the top coat dried I incised a variety of patterns to show the base layer. This is sort of like what Mark del Guidice (sp?) does on some of his stuff--which my wife, Liz, loves.

- carving a 30" high chicken out of glued up walnut. Liz has a serious chicken fetish.

For friends I'm turning bottle stoppers.

David

[TWS]

David, I'm curious about your choice of walnut here. I don't think of this as a 'carving' wood (or a 'chicken' wood for that matter). Why walnut?

I'm not a carver (yet anyway) so maybe walnut is a great wood to carve. Just curious and interested to learn.

TWS

[Andy Dingley]

Walnut is a great wood to carve - one of the best, even better than lime (well, for European versions of both timbers)

It doesn't strike me as particularly "chickeny" either - but then, what would you use ?

[Chris W]

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for the shameless plug.

[WoodMangler]

Andy Dingley did say:

I'm in a bandsaw and lathe mood lately so I'm making bandsawn jewelry boxes and various turned items such as boxes, wine stoppers, etc.

[Rob V]

M&M/Gumball machines (like the ones posted here a while ago) for the kids in the neighborhood (6 on my block).

Some nice boxes for their parents. (picked up Doug Stowes boxes book - some great ideas in there)

Been doing it for our neighbors since we moved in 3 years ago. Started w/ nice cutting boards - last year were pen sets. Already have gotten hints from the neighbors that they cant see wait to see what santa brings them this year.

What just kills me is when they say - "you really made this?"

Happy holidays

[David E. Penner]

American walnut isn't too bad to carve. You do have to watch out for knots. As for the choice of walnut for this project. Well, I had a lot of thick stock around and I like the look of garnet shellaced and polished walnut.

Although I like some realisitic sculpture, it's not the mode I work in. This chicken is, for lack of a better word, stylized -- it looks chicken-like.

David

[Chris Hornberger]

"Christmas - What are you making as gifts ?"

me... lots of payments. Many of the people I deal with are more about glitz and glam than a good hand fashioned item. *sigh*

[RKG]

Boxes lots of boxes, jewellry boxes for the girls and keepsake boxes for the guys.

Rick

[Prometheus]

Basswood carves really nicely, and it's a little more chicken-colored. But heck, why not walnut? After all, chickens aren't made of wood either! Aut inveniam viam aut faciam

[ToolMiser]

I need to make a TV cabinet and a stand for a stereo for my In-laws. They want them separate, and the TV should be lower than the 17" table that it is currently on. But they want the TV "enclosed" or have a shelf over the top they can set "articles" on. My clincher is that it needs to be in a Mission style to match other furniture. I was commissioned last summer, but I've dragged my feet. I must do it, because my garage is full of "home sawed" lumber from their land, costing me almost nothing.