Beaverdale Holiday Boutique

My dad and I will once again have a table at the Beaverdale Holiday Boutique this weekend. It's held at Holy Trinity Church on Beaver Ave...just north of Urbandale Ave. Friday there is a special "early viewing" from 6:30-8:30pm  and we will be there all day , 8-3pm, on Saturday. Lots of handmade gifts will be available for purchase at the sale again this year. Hope to see you there!!

Spalted Hackberry Hollow Form

One of the online forums I belong to is having a holiday exchange. I turned this spalted hackberry hollow form for it and it's now on the way to TN. It's about 7" in diameter and 4.5" tall. The spalting is beautiful and I left some worm tracks in it as well. While it was drying a small but long crack developed and I used some sawdust and CA glue to seal it up. Now I just have a few more small projects left to finish for the holidays!

Coffee Anyone?

Handmade gifts are the best in my opinion. I love to give people turned items as gifts for weddings, house warmings, birthdays and of course Christmas. Since my dad is also an avid turner he enjoys this kind of gift as well. This year he finished up 3 coffe mugs just in time for Christmas, (I saw him spraying the last coat of laquer the night we arrived at their home) My brother, brother in law and myself were the happy recipients of these mugs. Mine is the spalted hackberry in the middle. The left one is burr oak and the right one is walnut.

Walnut Cigar Ashtray

I saw this thread by Bill Wyko, a very accomplished segmented turner, over on SMC about a month ago and decided it would be a great project for a Christmas gift for my BIL. He enjoys a good cigar with a drink out on the patio during the summer months. Hopefully this will keep the ash off the ground for the kids to get into. Made from a scrap bin cutoff of 5/4 walnut, it is about 7" round and 3" high. I was going to try and the slot for the cigar on the router table but after some tense moments on trials with scraps and just about not being able to count to ten with fingers, I took out my old ryobi dremel knock off and "carved it out" Finish is friction polish as that is what Bill Wyko used on his. He is a cigar smoker and said it works well. I'm going to try a few more and possibly stop by the local "high end" cigar shop to see if they would be interested in displaying them. Comments are encouraged please....

Winter Has Arrived!

This morning the temp was -2 and the wind chill was -27. Last night I couldn't stand the cold out in the shop so I came in after less than half an hour. The forecast shows 4-6" of snow tomorrow and then cold temps and possibly freezing rain in a few days. Why am I writing about bad weather? Well I have a problem, there are still a few Christmas gifts that I need to be finish and the weather isn't helping at all. Saturday it reached the lower 50s, but I decided to watch my beloved Kansas Jayhawks take an embarrassing loss to UMASS, then I had a birthday party to attend. Sunday morning I looked outside and the sky was blue and it looked warm. By the time I got around to go outside it was still in the 40s and looked like it would be a great day....within 45 minutes the temp had dropped 25 degrees and continued to fall and the wind began to howl...that lead to last night and this morning. Conclusion, winter has arrived in Iowa and I am still a procrastinator....and also, BRRRR!