First Christmas Gifts

[Pete Schupska]

First couple Christmas gifts of the season. First is a second round of bamboo and walnut coasters. I posted the prototype a couple weeks ago; this round has the bamboo panel rabbeted into the walnut instead of dadoed. Still mitered corners, and used the painter's tape trick to glue and clamp them.

Second is not quite finished, we're still debating the colors. It's the rocking horse from last month's Wood magazine for my nephew. I'll post an update when he has some color on him.

Criticism welcome!

[Ben Martin]

No criticism here!

They look great Pete!

[John Keeton]

Pete, I really like the walnut/bamboo combination - great contrast and excellent work on the tight miters.

I agree - the rocky horse looks a little "pale" and getting a little color on him will make a big difference. Kids love rocky horses - they are timeless!

[Matt Walton]

Criticism welcome!
Well, if you insist... :D
It's not so much criticism, but more curiosity: Why are the coasters so thick? I'm still pretty new at this, so I don't really know anything about coasters :), but those look really thick.
No offense, again just curious.
But they do look great!

[Gary Breckenridge]

I liked the horse from Wood so much that I started a rocking orca. Colors for an orca are easy, black and white. :) What age group are you building the horse to hold ?

[Pete Schupska]

I'll answer two at once. The horse is for my nephew, and he is ~14 months now, so 15.5 around Christmas time. He's walking now, running really, so I hope he'll sit still long enough to ride it. I'm planning on using "Puritan Pine" on his body and "American Walnut" for the mane. Saddle might be red and blue... but his daddy is a UofM grad, so I might have to cave and make it Maize and Blue.

The coasters are ~3/4 inches tall and the walnut is ~7/8 wide. The height was driven by two factors... first, I don't have a planer; and the walnut was scrap from another project. Also, the bamboo section is leftover flooring that was 5/8" thick. Bamboo doesn't plane well, but cuts nicely. So the 5/8 floor left me ~1/8 inch in the rabbet. The 7/8" width was purely aesthetic.


Hope that answers everything.

[Pete Schupska]

You all inspired me to put some color on him tonight...

[gary Zimmel]

You're way ahead of me on the xmas gifts Pete.
Looking good.

[Pete Schupska]

Delivered over Thanksgiving. I couldn't wait to give it to the little guy.

[John Thompson]

Great start and excellent job on the horse. You remind me I need to get started on some gifts myself.