Make my own Christmas gifts

This was a request from my sister. Her daughter loves necklaces and my sister ends up untangling them. She asked me to make a case that would allow the necklaces to hang. I should have made drawings as that would have cut down on the errors. I started from a picture of a jewelry case by Doug Stowe as my inspiration. I made it a bit more “mission” and added spinners in the middle for hanging necklaces.

This was a challenging knife to make – especially the sheath.

2 more down! I had a lot of fun making these. I am still afraid of color and have a lot to learn about wood finishing but I hope the recipients will enjoy these clocks. I plan to make a 3rd for myself in cherry (these are oak).

This was a project that my father had started 6 years ago. It came with the rest of the woodworking machines when he gave me his shop. I decided to finish this for mom this year. I will have my signature on it and have dad add his when I go visit them.

The top portion is long enough for good sized taper candles. The bottom drawers would hold tea lights or matches/such. Dad said mom still has the candles she had bought for these boxes (she was originally having him make 5 of these – I am only finishing this one. The others have all donated their wood to other projects.)

One of my first lathe projects was a pepper mill for my parents . My parents mentioned that my sister really liked the mill I had made for them so I thought this would be a good idea for this year Christmas. This is tiger maple – actually the block on the left in the original picture. I finished it with 3 coats of amber shellac (not the most resilient finish but food safe and easy to restore when damaged) and then a coat of Renaissance Wax. I wish I had a buff to make it shine even more but that is another $60 that I don’t want to spend right now. It stands a bit above 6” tall.

This one was a challenge to make as I had to glue-up the frame into an octagon and then turn it round on my lathe. The copper face was harder to turn round than I expected too. I have enough of the patinaed copper face material for 2 more clocks.

The material for the face was something dad had bought at an auction many years ago thinking it would make a neat clock. This year I decided to make that a reality.

The last time I was helping AnnieDee with some work on her house I noticed this potpourri lid on a flimsy little glass bowl. I took the hummingbirds back with me and found a nice piece of spalted pecan to use for the bowl.

This is a pen that looks like a rifle shell. The antler is from a discarded rack that my BIL gave me many years ago (he found it shed in a field).

Family/friends gifts:
pen from an antler DONE
pepper mill DONE
wall clock DONE
candle box (storage for candles) DONE
potpourri box DONE
mantle clock x 2 DONE
jewelry box x 2 DONE
knife/sheath DONE

wooden jewelry

The neat thing about what I want to make for my parents is that they are both projects that my father had started/planned before he could no longer do woodworking.