Several years back I made a number of snowmen out of scrap wood. I turned them to shape on the lathe, used a woodburning pen to mark the facial features and the buttons and used twigs for the arms. In some cases I made wooden hats out of contrasting woods but in most cases my wife made hats and scarves out of fabric. Combining the hard wood with the softness of various types of cloth was often very striking. We gave the snowmen as gifts to family, friends and work colleagues. You can see some examples on the “holiday” page.
This fall I was delighted to find a vendor who had snowman ornament kits with top hats in the choice of gold or chrome. I have six examples on the “holiday” page. For the snow ball material I simply used a poplar dowel purchased at the local lumber yard. Poplar is not the best turning wood because its quite soft and doesn’t cut cleanly like a harder wood such as maple. But I wanted a light colored wood and it was convenient to have some of the turning done for me. Similar to other ornament kits as well as pen kits, a hole is drilled all the way through the length of the wood blank and a brass tube is glued into the hole. A metal rod called a mandrel is then put through the brass tube and supports the blank as it spins on the lathe. After the wood was turned to shape and sanded, I burned the features, applied superhero stickers in some cases, finished the wood wIth CA glue, and pressed the hat and bottom buttons into the brass tube. I enjoyed experimenting with snowball shapes and facial expressions, and since a number of these guys were going to end up in Arizona, I couldn’t help but make one as if he was out in the sun too long. He actually turned out to be my favorite of the bunch.
The other new pieces on the “holiday” page were turned from manufactured wood with the brand names of Spectraply and Dymalux. Layers of birch veneer are dyed and bonded together and impregnated with resin. The material is easy to work with and sands and polishes to a gloss without using wax or other finishing material. These products are used for gun stocks, knife handles, and pepper mills because of their stability and durability. The 11 inch holiday tree and the 2 inch round ornaments have alternating birch layers in multiple colors. The 3 inch ornament with the polished aluminum bands is also made of layers of birch veneer but only dyed with one color.
The aluminum bands on the red ornament were created by cutting grooves about a 1/16 inch deep and filling the grooves with a paste made of aluminum powder and CA glue. Once the materiaI has hardened, sand and polish as usual.
Ed