Festive turning ... ...

To be honest I haven't had much time of late for blogging or much else, other than Christmas related stuff (where does the time go ?) seems it was just about summer last time I looked, now it's two weeks until Christmas day !

But I've tried to carry on the family tradition of making stuff for the festive season, so I managed to make a couple of things on my lathe in the way of decorations.

First up, not very elaborate, but quite pleasing none the less -

It kind of resembles a Christmas tree.

I made two - 

Not quite the same as the last one, but similar.

As wood turning goes these are pretty basic, more or less tree shaped (as in Christmas tree) with a twisted loop of copper wire as a means to hang them on the tree, I made them from bits of scrap wood (Pear in this case) and just gave them a bit of a polish with beeswax.

The next item, and most likely the last thing I'll make this year (unless I suddenly find myself with free time) is a snow man, and I made all the parts on my lathe, even the tiny nose, I used copper pins for the eyes and buttons.

Meet Frosty - 

My wife's handy work in the background, this years Yule log.

I decided making a snowman would be a fun thing to do, although I have to say I'm not sure I've quite got the dimensions right, but it does resemble a snowman, sort of.

Here's a picture of the components - 

All made from Pine and on my lathe.

And as you may have noticed from the picture he is also a storage box, perfect for hiding a few sweets in.

The only thing I didn't make was the copper pins I used for it's eyes and buttons, and the lacquer I used to coat it with, I could have gone the whole hog and painted it white and then used different colours for it's nose,eyes and buttons, but I quite like the way it looks in plain wood, I could have spent more time on the finish and used some of the polishes I normally use on other stuff, but figured it would get a lot of attention from the kids, so I didn't go too mad on the finish, and besides I can always paint it next year and it'll be new all over again.

I think he cuts quite a dashing profile myself - 

Might have to make the body segments a little more rounded next time.

There are loads of things you can make for Christmas, and a variety of materials you can use, and it doesn't have to cost a load of money either, I'm lucky in that I have a lathe and various other tools which allow me to make stuff like this, but it could just as easily have been made from clay, or paper, or even knitted.

Merry Christmas and all the best for the new year.

Thanks for reading.