Blog Party Thursday, May 6, 2010

Alrighty! I've missed a few blog parties lately because of a bout of the flu which ran through my whole family. But I'm back now with some new items for you to look through.

Also, a big "Thank you!!!" to Kim over at Everything Etsy for hosting this event every Thursday. You're a doll!

• • • • •

This is a pair of Curly Maple with Purple Heart candle holders, the first pair in a new style. All of the candle holders you'll see here today are in this style, with rounded edges, made of two or three contrasting woods and sold in pairs.

This pair is Black Walnut with Purple Heart.

This is Curly Maple with Purple Heart and Black Walnut.

This pair is Black Walnut with Yellow Heart.

And this is Yellow Heart with Black Walnut.

Here is a beautiful pair, made of Spalted Pecan and Black Walnut.

This style was in my head for a couple of months whilst I was planning and building my router table. As soon as it was up and running there was no reason to wait any longer, so I started putting different types of wood together to see what cool combinations I could come up, and here are the early results. Very soon I'll be driving out to see my sawyer so I can add more variety to the mix.

Keep in mind that all of these candle holders and lots more are for sale, folks. And if you mention the I Made It Blog Party I'll refund the shipping cost.

April, 2010: jn3 Current Projects, part 2

The newly designed candle holders are being prepped for some "mass" production. I need some variety to test whether the design is viable so I'm building 13 more of them with different woods. I'll be using red oak, black walnut, yellow heart, curly maple and spalted pecan in various combinations, and then the buying public will determine which ones are best. Here are the blanks for this project. Once all of them are glued up and trimmed to size I can run them all across the router table one after another.

Also, I finished the stand for the small television et al that will be placed in my mother's kitchen. It is made of red oak, finished with three coats of tung oil and three coats of satin polyurethane. It has only one shelf. The television will sit on top on one end. There will be a phone and a DirecTV box either on it or under it, and there's room for her cat, Lucy to sit on top and look out the window. The back was built in two overlapping parts with a space between so all the cords can snake out the back and not be seen.

April, 2010: jn3 Current Projects

I'm working on two very different projects at this time. The first one is a shelf, built to order to go in my mother's kitchen. It will hold a small television, among other things, and she had very specific size requirements. For one thing, it had to be large enough so her cat, Lucy, could sit on it if she so desires.

The second project is a new series of candle holders I'm building out several different types of wood. I'm using black walnut, purple heart, curly maple, yellow heart and red oak in various combinations. The ones you see here are curly maple with purple heart, and black walnut with purple heart. I think the effect is a good one and I expect to move several of these through my shops and at the craft fares this summer.

The unifying feature of both projects is the new router table. I used it to cut the joints and to round over the edges for the shelf unit, and to round over the edges on the four candle holders you see here. I plan to rout a cove profile on some other candle holders in this series, and I may use an ogee bit on some more.