Bamboo whistles! Happy new year to the lot of you! ;-)
Made from the 2011 growth of the bamboo from our garden, harvested around March 2012 and dried in the shed/garage since then. They work surprisingly well!
(Not that I need any whistles, but that's not the point at all. I can almost hear my parents warning me about putting things I found in the garden in my mouth.)
Speaking of parents, it's almost less woodwork-related than the whistles (although I did use the bandsaw!), but I've been toying on and off for a year or so with carving, resulting in these Christmas presents for my mum (greyhound owner) and dad (curiously attached to swordfishes after watching Horse Feathers):
The bookmark is made from two bits of black walnut veneer around a maple-veneer core; I've been trying to get bookmarks out of thin slices of wood since I got my first bandsaw, but until I learned more about veneering and understood the balancing back-and-front, they always ended up seriously curved! The letter opener is maple, since it's the hardest, tightest-grained wood in my offcuts bin.
The background of the greyhound one is my least favourite part of either, since I had terrible trouble keeping it flat and even all the way around. If anyone has any tips, I'm all ears.
Made from the 2011 growth of the bamboo from our garden, harvested around March 2012 and dried in the shed/garage since then. They work surprisingly well!
(Not that I need any whistles, but that's not the point at all. I can almost hear my parents warning me about putting things I found in the garden in my mouth.)
Speaking of parents, it's almost less woodwork-related than the whistles (although I did use the bandsaw!), but I've been toying on and off for a year or so with carving, resulting in these Christmas presents for my mum (greyhound owner) and dad (curiously attached to swordfishes after watching Horse Feathers):
The bookmark is made from two bits of black walnut veneer around a maple-veneer core; I've been trying to get bookmarks out of thin slices of wood since I got my first bandsaw, but until I learned more about veneering and understood the balancing back-and-front, they always ended up seriously curved! The letter opener is maple, since it's the hardest, tightest-grained wood in my offcuts bin.
The background of the greyhound one is my least favourite part of either, since I had terrible trouble keeping it flat and even all the way around. If anyone has any tips, I'm all ears.
