My wife decided the Ziricote Pencil Holder I made for her birthday would actually make a better TiVo Remote holder. I have to agree.
Ziricote Pencil Holder
Here’s a plain and simple little box I made for my lovely wife for her birthday. Plain and simple in terms of the woodworking maybe, but that’s because this one is all about the *wood*. It’s called Ziricote, and the grain patterns can be really amazing. Which is what I wanted to celebrate here. (As well as my wife’s birthday, of course).
Octo Pieces
We have kind of an "Octo" theme going in our house. There is a small octagonal stained glass window above the front door, I built some large octagonal planters a while back, and one of our gardens is octagonally bordered, so here’s a couple more on that theme.
The octo cheese board matches the larger laminated breadboard I did recently, and is actually left over from the laminated top for a matching bread box that is in progress.
The small octo planter, really an octo flower pot, was to use up some red cedar from the Muskoka Chairs… and still a few pieces left, so I may do one or two more of these…
My Etsy store is updated!
I’ve spent some time updating the inventory on my Etsy store, which is now ready to roll with everything I have available for sale, including the recent Big Stripey Board! Lots of pens for the upcoming school and/or holiday seasons…
Big Stripey Boards
This is a new (to me) design for a cutting board, and I REALLY like how it turned out… it’s about an inch and an eighth thick, or 9/8 as we drummers like to say, and made of four species of wood… it has little rubber feet as it’s intended to sit out on the counter, and the feet help keep its bottom dry… there’s also a pair of recessed finger grooves to make it easier to grab hold of… and the edges are all chamfered…
I made two boards from the same lamination: I basically made a two-foot cutting board and then cut it in half before adding the final details… the design is based on an article on Fine Woodworking’s website (although the two-boards-at-once part was my idea)…
One of these is going in our kitchen as soon as I finish typing this… the other is looking for a home, so don’t be shy… B-)
Space Invader Footstools
With some nice red cedar left over from the Muskoka Chairs, it seemed inevitable that I would build a footstool or two… or four… it’s *possible* I may even get a fifth, or else I’ll make a couple of small planters or something….
Any decent project is only as good as its plan… or hopefully better… taking my dimensions from an existing crappy old footstool (which will soon be kindling, if I have my way) I taped this detailed architectural drawing to the shop wall, so I could refer to, and deviate from, its intricacies as I went along…
I thought at first that my design reminded me of the Android logo …but now I realize it looks more like the blockers from the original Space Invaders
Screenshot from the original Space Invaders
Two More Muskoka Chairs
These are for my mother-in-law, delivered today. Just a quick record shot before I loaded them up to take over to her. They look pretty much exactly like the two I built for us, with one exception: I put a small curve in the arm rest support. Next time, if I build any more, I’ll probably put a curve in the front stretcher.
Last Two Pen and Pencil Sets
Click here to view the original size, so you can see the details in the wood grain, especially that maple burl, it’s quite awesome. Forgot these in the recent inventory photos, the last of the hand made pen and pencil sets, for now. Zebrawood and Maple Burl. Let me know if you’re interested!
Current Pen Inventory
These are all the hand-made pens I have left in stock at the moment — let me know if there’s anything you’d like…
View original size (so you can read the teeny tiny tags)
View original size (so you can read the teeny tiny tags)
Muskoka Chairs, with varnish
I finally decided to add just a single coat of marine spar varnish, thinned 50-50 with turpentine so it would soak in more, and better to protect the wood. I elected to stop there, rather than build up a “film” finish, because such a finish WOULD eventually break down in a way that would require scraping or sanding to remove, whereas the more deeply penetrated finish of the single thinned coat would be less likely to break down in an unsightly way… That’s the theory anyway… we’ll see how it goes in a year or two…