Handmade Christmas 2016

I had large plans for gifts this year but my work/life schedule just didn't allow me to be elaborate so I toned things down a bit this year. However, even with that, my gifts came out well, are loved, and I enjoyed making them.

I made a wooden disk table runner for Sarah. I was lucky to have a nicely seasoned beech limb in the shop left over from some previous project. I set up my chop-saw so that I'd be cutting slices of the same thickness and went at it. I tried to arrange them in a pattern which I think came out well. I used Elmer's white glue to glue them to a piece of felt. I wasn't sure about how well the white glue would hold up but now, after much handling, it seems to work OK. I think we'll probably still treat it fairly gently, though. I finished it with a light coat of spray varnish.

Elizabeth is heading off to college next year, so I wanted to give her something to remind her of home. This barn board silhouette of Vermont is just the thing. (If she goes to the University of Vermont, she probably won't want it but it'll work for the other schools she's interested in!)

(prior to sanding)

(I love pocket screws!)

I used this silhouette for both Vermont themed gifts this year. After using it, I realized I could have just cut it out and traced it but I transferred it using pencil instead. It worked fine. After sanding the edges, I gave it several coats of spray varnish (front and back). The front is still a bit splintery, though, so you have to be careful handling it. I nailed a hanger on the back so that it can hang on a wall easily. I used a couple hemlock boards left over from building the barn for this one. Since they had been outside for a few years, they were nicely weathered.

This gift for Helen caused me quite a bit of geek and symmetry angst. The geeky angst came from the fact that I made the one with the heart in the middle of the state first - and it came out quite well. BUT the heart isn't over Hartland so the map geek in me forced me to do another with the heart in the right place.

The second one is the one that caused a lot of symmetry angst. As you can see from the picture above, the heart is in the right place but I could NOT get the string to look decent. I ended up stringing this one 3 times - including the last time on Christmas eve! But it came out well so it was worth it.

I used plain old 1-by for the base and 7/8" cut nails. I finished the wood (front and back) with some spray varnish prior to stringing.