Christmas wood projects

[micktoon]

   Hi All , Just thought I would post a few photos of what I have been making for various Christmas presents . . . . . . .  .. while I should have been rebuilding my lathe
  The photos are not that good as taken on my mobile phone and to be honest I only took the odd in progress shots but you will get the general idea from them.

 This is a full size wine bottle made out of an old fence post that had been lying around for ages, it is being dyed green in this shot and the block of wood lying on the lathe bed below the green bottle is the other half of the post , that will become the red bottle.



 I am in a local woodturning club and this collection was my donation to the yearly sale the club has to raise funds , the colours are not good in the photo the bottles were brighter than they look here, the red and green ones are pine and I am not sure what the other one is , maybe apple ? or some fruit wood, they are life size to give you some idea of the sizes. The Christmas trees are various timbers, some with different types of wood for the pots and some all out the same bit of wood.  The mice are stuck on with blue tack here just so they dont knock together while being transported really, they ended up with less blue tack so it could not be seen.



This is a closer shot of the mice on the cheese, they ended up looking better than this as I managed to get some map pins to do the eyes with, they are just burnt on here , they looked much better once they had their beady eyes fitted. The ears and tails are leather and the whiskers are cut from a paint brush.



This was the bigger project for my girlfriends present , a pine chest with dovetail joints..... everything that could go wrong, did go wrong doing this , so it took ages and there was some swearing going on I can tell you. All the mouldings / trims etc were routered out of solid wood, the dovetails ( with much hassle were made with a router on a woodrat ( its a sort of jig type thing that can do many types of joints with a router ). There was no real drawings or plan just knew what it was to look like and made it up as I went.  This is the only photo whilst getting done , its finished but in bare wood here.



This is the Chest finished and in position , its storage and a coffee table, its dyed antique pine colour and finished with dark wax that gives it the aged look. The colour is darker than this photo shows. The Apple and Pear were also made to go with the chest they are Laburnum wood.



This photo is more like the true colour, I bought the brass handles but they were not really what I had in mind but all I could find, trying them on they looked to plain so I made the brass backing plates then attached the handles on top of them and they look much better. Anyway she loved it and it now has pride of place. Note all the new wood coasters on the top, it has been made clear by its new owner that if anyone dares to put cups etc on it they will be in big trouble 



  So it looks like its back to the lathe at long last now 

 Cheers Mick.

[dsquire]

Mick

You have made an excelent job of all that. I can see why your girlfriend appreciates it and wants to keep it stain free. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Happy New Year

Cheers 

Don

[andyf]

That's much better woodwork than I can produce, Mick.

I love the mice; might try something similar for my ladyfriend (we're both a bit too far over the hill for girlfriend/boyfriend).

Andy

PS I hope you remembered to rout/burn or otherwise tattoo "with Love" and your name inside the chest lid, so  no other guy ever gets to use it for storage...

[trevoratxtal]

Wow, Wow, Wow.
Magic I am wowed over.
Thanks for some ideas
Trev

[DMIOM]

Mick,

That's magnificent craftsmanship     

Thanks for sharing those to-become-heirlooms

Dave

[Rob.Wilson]

     Stunning Mick 

Brass handles look better 


Rob

[NickG]

Mick,

They are all fantastic, now my wife wants a wooden mouse and chest though    if she thinks mine would look like that she must be

[Meldonmech]

Hi Mick
            You made some smart items there, it's nice to make things in wood for a change, and they grow so much quicker, I made a chest like yours about 6yrs ago in pine, for fun I only used hand tools and made the dovetails by hand, just something I wanted to master. We have it in the bathroom and use it as a seat/ linen box.

                                                    Cheers David

[jonesie]

  mick those are some real nice wood projects,i too like to work in wood as a change of pace, but have not done any in awhile.i also like to carve wood caritures , right now working on some bears and a dog will have to post some pics. again nice work. jonesie

[DaveH]

Mick,

Fabulous, 

Love the nibbling mice 
 
DaveH

[raynerd]

Mick, great work!

My daughter would love the mice!! Whenever I touch wood (and metal come to think about it), it turns out dreadful. If you ever make any more mice would you mind doing a little tutorial? Perhaps it is obvious, but not to me!

Great stuff.

Chris

[micktoon]

 Thanks for all the comments nice lads , I am glad everyone seems to like the items, I have found a few more better photos so will post another post straight after this post so I can paste and copy it to another forum too..... they would wonder what all these comments in this post are about if I included then in this post.

  andyf, I really am no expert so I am sure you will be able to do as good yourself , where there is a will there is a way  , I have just worked out how to do the mice myself  and they are ok to do really so you will be able to do them too I think. The chest is the first ever bit of proper furniture I have tried, again it just had to be done as I left it too late for a plan 'B' lol. The girlfriend bit is not married so 'wife' no good and when you say partner these days people tend to think you mean a gentleman in a cryptic way lol.

  Trev , Glad it gave you some ideas , thats the good thing about forums, it spreads the joy , no one person can think of everything so good to share ideas with others that are interested, I am grateful for lots of ideas I have got from looking at similar posts in the past.

  NickG, Same as I say to andyF, if you can do things in metal you WILL be able to do things like the mice fine, the chest is more of a project but again I am no joiner and did it so its doable 

  David Meldonmech, Hat off to you for doing hand dovetails  , that bloody woodrat thing had me domented until I finally worked it out but hand cutting them is a whole different thing I bet, you probably got even more satisfaction seeing them done !

  Jonesie, I have just started to have a go at woodcarving too , I am doing a Yorkshire rose, its like a five petalled flower , Yorkshire has a white one and Lancashire a red one, its slow work compared to wood turning but nice and peaceful, I would like to see some photos of your carving if you can post some please.

  Chris, I think all your stuff both metal and wood from what I have seen comes out spot on  I have to make some mice for people that saw them ones........... never show people stuff like that lol, I will do a step by step of how I do it as it seems like a few people would like to have a go. It could be done on metal lathe with at a push too as not too tricky to turn, they only use small bits of wood too. The cheese thing came by accident as I had turned disc scrap of wood on the bench as put the half done mice on it by chance , then thought .....Umm that looks like a cheese lol. So I will do a step by step soon.

 Cheers Mick

   

[micktoon]

I have found a few better pictures of the Christmas things I posted above and another wine bottle I made. This is a general shot but the colours are much more how they actually looked.



This it the light coloured mice made from Ash wood after the beady eyes were fitted, these eyes look much better than the burnt in eyes. The cheeses are just discs of wood turned to shape then dyed red, rounded holes made in them at random with a router and ball ended cutter, the the nibbled areas are done with a fine woodcarving gouge.



The darker mice made from mystery wood, not sure what it is , its similar to teak I think ? with the beady eyes fitted.



This is Rhudolph the mouse with his red nose he is made out of Pearwood. By chance a friends wife who is a nursery teacher bought this one from the Woodturners sale, she hides it somewhere in the classroom every day and the kids have to find it  , she says they love looking for it.




This is the wine bottle I made for my Girlfriend out of Beechwood, her street is called Milton , hence the name , I printed off a couple of images from the internet then traced it onto the finished bottle then burnt in the design with a pyography pen, its like a soldering iron type thing It should be neater really but I need more practice with the pen and also to make some finer tips for it. The cork is actually not seperate and is integral part of the wood the rest of the bottle is made from but has not been finished or waxed and has has the black flecks burnt into it too , everyone who has seen it has tried to pull the cork out .....it looks more like a cork than a real cork !



  Cheers Mick 

[doubleboost]

Fantastic work Mick
I fancied making a box for wor lass
But she said it would be too heavy made from 3/8 boiler plate 
John

[Rob.Wilson]

were is my bottle Mick 


I really like the burnt in label 


Rob