A gift for a friend...

Word of my misadventures in crafting have spread! I was approached by a member of my 1812 re-enactment group with a piece of leather work. I was told the piece is intended to act as a handle for wine bottles. Now, to say re-enactors in my unit are found of Port, would be an understatement! So Carol wanted to make a gift of this device to one of the men in the unit, who hosts our Friday night "Port Night. I tried to simply stretch the piece she gave me, but due to the age and the initial cut of the piece that was not possible.

So here is my version of this clever little device! It provides a sturdy handle with which to dispense copious amounts of this delicious beverage!

I do need to note however, that this particular crafter of Port is sneaky. When I first completed this piece, I was dismayed to notice that for some reason one of my loops didn't seem to fit. At first I thought it was because I had made a mistake when cutting the loop straps, and had cut one longer than the other. On closer inspection, I notice that the bottle has a taper to it! Something I had not considered! When I measured the bottle to determine the lengths require, I only measured the top of the bottle. Whoops!

So, I will need to insert a shim in the bottom loop. Oh well, still a nifty little project!

It's been awhile...

Wow, time flies! I must admit, that I have not spent too long thinking of my blog during this absence. A lot has happened in the month's since I last wrote anything. I've started a new job, lost a grand-mother, and just been busy in general. Haven't had much opportunity to do any work out in the shop, and until today have only completed a few on-going projects. But to get caught up on what I've been up to...

This is the finished top to a games table I had started way back in October (I think...). I still need to add my personal signature to the middle of the knot in the center of the tabletop, but it's otherwise complete. It took a long time to finalize the type of knot I wanted on the table, and even longer to come up with a stencil that would translate the knot properly. I am quite pleased with the finished product however!  Initially, I was not going to outline the knot in black, but found that the knot lost it's consistency without that accent. More work, but well worth the time spent!

This next little piece came about out of necessity. My father spends a lot of time at his computer desk, and was always using the nearby paper shredder as a makeshift footstool. Knowing this, I decided to churn out something out of my shop for him. He was quite pleased (and proud!) of the results.

When designing this piece, I was envisioning the many camp stools I had seen while re-enacting. A lot of peg-and-post concepts, that allow for easy packing and assembly. So I decided to copy from that. Using some 3/4" pine plywood, I came up with a 4-piece design. The top is fastened to the sides with wood screws, but the stretcher joins the sides in a peg-and-post fashion

For the end pieces, I didn't want them to just be plain square boards. So for a little bit of flair, I crated a sort of 'X' pattern, by cutting recesses on 3 sides. I think the final look is nice, and my dad's eyes light up when I showed it to him, which made all the effort worthwhile!

Here you can see the pegs that hold the stretcher in place between the two sides. I will be adding a cushion and upholstery to the top, so no screw holes will be visible on the finished product.