Wood Craft Projects - retry

These are some of the projects I work on during the summer months.

Candle Holder
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Wooden Briercliff Chairs.

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The Briercliff chair is a great chair for gardens. At the lake I have approximately 20 of the full size adult chairs and 5 child size. I make them in my wood shop. These chairs are also known as Adirondac Chairs, Muskoka Chairs & Bear Chairs. As I had more than enough of the human sized ones, I decided to try scaling them down. The very small ones are made from wooden tongue depressors and we use them as ornaments on our Christmas Tree.

My Daughter Katie was enchanted by Holstein cattle when she was younger. She was collecting all kinds of cow ornaments, stuffed toys, photos, etc. One day while I was working away in the shop it suddenly occurred to me that perhaps I could make her a one of a kind Holstein Cow item. So I got busy and came up with the "Cow Chair."

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To keep the cow chair authentic the chair has an udder.

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Dinosaurs & Animals

I don't remember exactly where it was, but one day I saw a picture of a Dinosaur pull toy and my mind started working. Grabbing a pencil and paper, the design for my first dinosaur pull toy emerged.

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I call it the "Blue Dino". It is quite impressive, over a foot long and eight inches high. Feeling I had a winner, I entered it into the Bala Cranberry Festival and it won first prize.

"Blue Dino" had a bunch of brothers and sisters, but unfortunately I gave all but two of them away and do not have any photos of them. "Green Dino" had a baby and I have kept them both.

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One can only make so many Dinosaurs before one wants to get more creative, out came the drawing pencil again and a few of the results follow.

Brown Bear

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Hippo

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My better half, Maureen, is the secretary at a local school and she likes to have treats for the children, especially at Christmas time. She had a photo of a snowman basket and wondered if I could make her one to hold candy canes. It didn't take long before I had one made for her. She has used it every year since then to hold candy canes for the children at her school.

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Skye mentioned the Snow-people. Digital graphics is one of my hobbies. I like to use Paintshop Pro to make images from scratch. Every year I designed my own Christmas Cards to send to friends and relatives. One year I made a couple of Snow-people with a Christmasy background to send out. One summer a neighbour gave me some end cuts from pine paneling that he had used to remodel his cottage. I was trying to think of what I could make with these odds and ends when I though of the snow-people. It didn't take long before the snow-people jumped from digital form in to reality.

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Skye I think this next one is the pair I sent to you.

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All of these projects were made with a Scroll Saw.

Wow!................ would you please book yourself on the next flight to the highlands for a one to one workshop EF? These are just amazing. Have you been using a scroll saw for a long time? My snow people do not appear to be here they are in the Christmas Box so I am not sure but I think there was four pieces to the assemble.

Is Maureen still retiring this year EF?

I am so pleased that you managed to get the pictures on the board and as ever your detailed posts defy belief and each word is treasured

I learned how to use a Scroll Saw, when I was just a boy. Back in those days, at least in Toronto, business men cared about youth, and the Kiwanis Club of Toronto owned and operated a number of inner city Boys Clubs. These Clubs provided a place for boys to spend their free time constructively.

I joined the Gerrard Kiwanis Boys Club when I was 8 years old and was a member until I joined the Canadian Armed Forces at age 18. The Club had a games room with all sorts of tables games, a plaster mold shop, a paint shop, a wood shop, weight lifting room, Gymnasium and library. My interests were mainly in the creative aspects of the Club.

At 9, I became a club volunteer and that gave me access to wood working machines such as the lath, Band Saw, Scroll Saw and Rip Saw. The volunteers were all drilled in the safety aspects of these machines and had to demonstrate to the Staff that we knew the Safety Rules before we were permitted to use them.

So for about 10 years I had full access to all of this equipment and during that time made all kinds of things from wood. I even won a few prizes for best pieces at a few of the Clubs yearly Craft Competitions.

After getting married I started to purchase my own tools, everything from screw drivers to a lath. But my favorite acquisition was the scroll saw, it permits one to do really amazing things with wood. Unfortunately, my wood shop is at the lake and I do not have access to it during the winter months, so do all of my wood work during the summer.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I received a number of gift cards from the Home Depot for Christmas and the total amount of these cards will permit me to purchase a professional quality Band Saw. While the Scroll Saw is great, the Band Saw is even better, particularly for making those small chairs.

As to your question about Maureen, yes, she retires at the end of the current school year in June.

Wow what a tender age to start crafting with a saw. The Scroll saw was actually my Christmas present the year before last as I saw a program about it on a TV Craft show.

My father was a carpenter! I think there is a song somewhere with that line in it!

So I have grown up around wood and love it dearly. I think once we have a little break in fairs Troy and I will have a go as I am so keen to master it.

Do you still plan to visit the UK when Maureen retires as we can actually help with accomodation any time soon, we have a cunning plan :)x

The above post was made by Skye... she forgot to log me out and herself in.

It is our fond hope to cross the briny at some point in the next few years, but it will all depend on how much we are able to save to make such a trip possible. Maureen wants to make another visit to Ireland, the home of her ancestors, to visit relatives. I would like to visit London and Wales, the ancestral homes of my Grandmother and Grandfather on my mothers side. But going to Scotland is much more important to me, as it has always been on my wish list. So should we manage to get over you can count on seeing us.