Russknan
Member
Just thought I'd take a moment to share some pics of a recent fun project.
A few words of background: When I was born (oldest of 4), my parents started a Christmas tradition. Each year, we would receive from my parents a Christmas ornament. When we were old enough, we could pick out our own. Our name or initials would be written on the ornament, along with the date. It was fun to see the progression from larger, relatively unbreakable ornaments to smaller, more delicate ones, as we got older. Then, when we married and had our own homes, the ornaments would go with us, sometimes with an ornament or two from our parents' tree.
My wife, Peri, and I have chosen to continue that tradition with our children - with the addition that we always get an ornament or two for ourselves. Those ornaments, for the last however many years, have been selected to symbolize something important that happened during that year. So, some years, the ornament would come from a place where we had traveled, where our kids went to college, etc. In this way, the Christmas tree each year displays a history of our family.
So, this year, in addition to ornaments from Germany and the Czech Republic, I was thinking about how I began turning pens in March, and became obsessed right after. So I got a couple of ornament kits and was preparing to turn a Christmas tree or something when my wife had a better idea. She said, "You've been spending all this time making pens, so the ornament should be a pen. I started thinking about that, and decided that I didn't just want to stick a pen on an ornament hook, but rather construct a simplified REPRESENTATION of a pen, made almost entirely of wood. Although I could have drawn out a clip outline and tried to cut it, I don't have a scroll saw but DO have a desire to keep my fingers. So I chose to use a clip from a pen that I dismantled for rehabilitation, and kept the rest of it all wood.
The body was made of holly (seemed appropriate for Christmas), and the cap, center band, and finial were made of some gunstock walnut a friend gave me. If I had it to do over again, I would use something more delicate for the loop for the ornament hook than the 14 gauge electrical wire on this one.
Pictures are quick-and-dirty on an old scrap v-block for convenience.
Comments and suggestions are most welcome.
Happy New Year!
Russ
A few words of background: When I was born (oldest of 4), my parents started a Christmas tradition. Each year, we would receive from my parents a Christmas ornament. When we were old enough, we could pick out our own. Our name or initials would be written on the ornament, along with the date. It was fun to see the progression from larger, relatively unbreakable ornaments to smaller, more delicate ones, as we got older. Then, when we married and had our own homes, the ornaments would go with us, sometimes with an ornament or two from our parents' tree.
My wife, Peri, and I have chosen to continue that tradition with our children - with the addition that we always get an ornament or two for ourselves. Those ornaments, for the last however many years, have been selected to symbolize something important that happened during that year. So, some years, the ornament would come from a place where we had traveled, where our kids went to college, etc. In this way, the Christmas tree each year displays a history of our family.
So, this year, in addition to ornaments from Germany and the Czech Republic, I was thinking about how I began turning pens in March, and became obsessed right after. So I got a couple of ornament kits and was preparing to turn a Christmas tree or something when my wife had a better idea. She said, "You've been spending all this time making pens, so the ornament should be a pen. I started thinking about that, and decided that I didn't just want to stick a pen on an ornament hook, but rather construct a simplified REPRESENTATION of a pen, made almost entirely of wood. Although I could have drawn out a clip outline and tried to cut it, I don't have a scroll saw but DO have a desire to keep my fingers. So I chose to use a clip from a pen that I dismantled for rehabilitation, and kept the rest of it all wood.
The body was made of holly (seemed appropriate for Christmas), and the cap, center band, and finial were made of some gunstock walnut a friend gave me. If I had it to do over again, I would use something more delicate for the loop for the ornament hook than the 14 gauge electrical wire on this one.
Pictures are quick-and-dirty on an old scrap v-block for convenience.
Comments and suggestions are most welcome.
Happy New Year!
Russ
