Christmas Ideas ?

[santiniuk]

All,

I'm hoping sometime prior to Christmas my turning skills will have improved enough to let me make something more exciting than a Tea Light holder. :lol:

I'm interested in any ideas you have used previously for the festive season.

Any pictures of previous work you would like to share ?

Thanks,

Shaun

 

[oddsocks]

Try snowmen and Christmas trees - they can be polished or painted. Beech (spalted or normal) is best but pine is ok too (if painted). Just put on a screw chuck and turn. make the hats different for variety. Drill a hole and put a 3mm square rod nose and then sand trim to shape.

The trees are like lego trees so simple cone and parting tool.

best size 50x50 x 110 mm for snowmen, 60-70 mm x 100-130mm for trees. but you can go bigger!

You can get carried away..... mantelpiece, cotton wool, low voltage fairy lights and 30 painted snowmen. Great for the children to paint as well - just use poster paints (the sort that you buy for about £1 per bottle in many colours in art shops)
Our first 20 have names on the bottom that reflects family and friends - good party game to see who gets it right!

any early batch from 2004,,,

I've just submitted a magazine article on how to make these in detail..


you can extend the idea - festive light pulls, hollowed snowman box for earrings etc. the polished ones look good on display all year

 

[Woodmagnet]

Love the snowmen and trees, Dave. :wink:

 

[santiniuk]

Dave, what a great idea !

My girls would love one of those. And hopefully I can make them without too much grief

Just need to find some wood now.....

Thanks very much for posting, It's amazing how good the look.

Cheers

Shaun

 

[Stu in Tokyo]

The snowmen are great, I think I'll make some, paint them white, then let my kids paint them, and give them as gifts!

Thanks!

 

[oddsocks]

The snowmen are great, I think I'll make some, paint them white, then let my kids paint them, and give them as gifts!

Thanks!

Thanks for all the positive comments - I must have made over 300 of these since the first sets in pine in 2004. Most have been made for presents and they are now normally at the request of relatives and friends for them to give. Sets of 5 snowmen and 2 trees look best

My wife was a childminder a few years ago and every year painted these with the children she minded (age 2-4) - they make great 'heirloom' decorations - much like the baby handprints. If doing them for children to paint it is best to make them a bit chunkier and as Stu suggested do the base coat first - they get bored painting white

For the trees, I have green spirit dye and just dip them, by far the easiest way then paint the lower trunk and pot.

Post some photos when completed please

 

[oddsocks]

another photo to show the caped snowman - the shape lends itself to creative painting.

 

[oddsocks]

last picture from me..... I found the snowman earring box I made

I was feeling brave that Christmas so wrapped it in a cardboard tube and gave to my wife - I put up with her 'fake' gratitude and mother in law stares for all of 2 mins before telling her to twist the lid (the box had cotton wool to stop any rattle). Peace and true gratitude restored )

 

[Anonymous]

Nice work Dave... both the products and the novel Xmas present :wink:

I do similar items in miniature and find it best to colour the tree pot... usually in red...

I have a friend who makes them with contrasting dark wood for the hat and ash/yew etc for the body; a piece of tinsel for a scarf completes the xmassy look... it's an alternative if you don't want to get into painting :wink:

 

[oddsocks]

Nice work Dave... both the products and the novel Xmas present :wink:

I do similar items in miniature and find it best to colour the tree pot... usually in red...

Thanks - actually the ones that were painted last year did have red pots! My wife (who does the painting) must have a policy of continuous improvement

 

[Stu in Tokyo]

OK, I banged these out today, I guess my snowmen were on a diet compared to your snowmen

The noses are not glued in, I figure to leave them out until the last, and paint them separately, easier to do.

I've got to go get some more wood tomorrow, I have nearly zero turning stock that is not bowl blanks, so some slabs will be bought.

Cheers!

 

[Anonymous]

The little fellah has character :wink:

 

[Paul.J]

Nice work Dave/Stu Something else to have a go at.This list is getting longer and longer and longer........................
Paul.J.

 

[Bodrighy]

Thank you thank you thank you, you have solved my problem of what to do for my grandkids. For a number of reasons cash is short this year but I have plenty of bits of wood that I can use to do these.

Pete

 

[colin macdiarmid]

Lovely ideas, like the snowman box

 

[Stu in Tokyo]

Yeah, the idea of "Snowman Boxes" is really neat, I'll have to get some better wood to do them in, but yeah, cool idea for sure.

Thanks again for sharing this idea Dave!

 

[oddsocks]

OK, I banged these out today, I guess my snowmen were on a diet compared to your snowmen

Cheers!

Nice shapes- a suggestion, visualise the head going into the hat - it's too easy to turn 'too much' of the head before it goes into the hat. My figured ones illustrate this best.

I don't turn the noses, I make a 3/3 or 4x4 strip, use a craft knife then round the end (that goes in the hole) and the use a chisel to cut of about 15mm. Superglue it in the (in my case) use a proxxon sander to roughly shape it.

My wife's impressed its gone global

 

[santiniuk]

Well what a great thread this has turned into.

I just hope it doesn't get toooooo long. :wink:

Since seeing the ideas Dave posted my girls have been hounding me to make them one. So with nothing better to do I escaped to the garage and hunted through my ebay wood collection. A couple of bits of olive ash and a piece of utile did the trick.

My learnings to date have been mainly faceplate work, bowls and platters are cluttering the house. So this was the chance to try some between centres work.

I'm scared stiff of the Skew chisel but thought this would be ideal to practice with after roughing the blanks round.

The first little fella didnt go too well. I ended up with his hat too far from the head. It was a real Frankenstein !
So rather than waste the body I cut the head from the body and cut a slight angle on the head so the hat was angled. Crazy I know but it was better than the bin

The Second one turned out better is a complete turning. (I managed to keep the hat near the head). He's about 170mm tall

The nose is a piece of utile turned and glued into a pocket.

The tree was a disaster ! This was the 1st piece, I used my parting chisel but I think its too wide for the effect I want. I abandoned this piece but the kids saved it.....

But after seeing Stu's brilliant work (Love the variations Stu), I realise how much more practise I need.

Still a great idea and ideal pieces for me to learn on.

Thanks

Shaun

 

[Stu in Tokyo]

Good work Shaun!

Dave, nice to hear you wife is impressed!

I know my hats are a little floating, looks odd, and I realized that, so on the small one, I got better at it, but not quite there yet.

Biggest problem is my skew is a bit on the large side, and I'm only learning how to handle the Bedan (it will be good for this, but I'm still learning how to make a bloody egg with that tool!) and my spindle gouges are a bit too big, I need to get some new ones, and a few detail gouges as well (does it ever end??? :shock: )

Well, I'm for bed, off in the morning for some new wood! \/

 

[oddsocks]

Well what a great thread this has turned into.

Still a great idea and ideal pieces for me to learn on.

Shaun

Shaun - I love the wonky hat and the 'tree' - interpretation is everything . Never throw anything that's completed away - they act as memories . I started turning these as a 'simple' shape to learn to use the tools with - whenever I end up with a snowman in a bobble hat it's because a tool has dug in or the hats rim has given up to the skew. I quickly realised that they are also not so simple!

Stu - good luck if you can justify those new tools to turn snowmen


PS - are there any other ideas for Christmas????.... skittles set for instance. If you want to buy mechanisms then there's salt and pepper grinders , pens, bottle openers etc etc