New & Improved Heart Stopper

with an adjustment to my tablesaw sled,

i am now able to cut smaller segments than in the original heart stopper...

so here's the new mock-up

can't wait to get this glued up to see how it looks!

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here's the completed blank. now i just need to turn it!

here is the completed heart stopper #2

The Heart Stopper

here's an idea i have been considering for a while.

only with these new smaller pieces do i think i can pull it off. what do you think?

I got the majaority of the blank glued up last night... but ran out of pieces....grrr.

here's what I've got so far...

and here we go...

Mini Cutting Board

Ah! It's feels good to have them all done!

Here's a look at the freshly oiled (and ready to go) mini cutting board!

mini cutting board - maple & walnut racing stripe

10.5" x 6.5" x 1.25"

Coming Soon...

Look what's coming soon to an Etsy store near you!

The Mini-Cutting Board

Here are the details on this board...

it's made of walnut and maple.

It's dimensions are 10.5"l x 6.5"w x 1.25"t

http://www.etsy.com/shop/darrylmasterson

I Was Not Expecting That...!

I recently joined a specialty chapter of AAW (American Association of Woodturners) called Segmented Woodturners. This group is specifically focused on segmented turnings... which is why the group name makes so much sense!

Anyway... yesterday I was informed that one of my pieces... this one specifically:

was selected as the "Photo of the Week" and is now displayed on the group's home page!
http://segmentedwoodturners.org/index.php

Possible Design...

I have come up with a new design I want to call the "Chocolate Chip"... I think I might like it as is, but i'm not really 100% sure. Here are a few different shots of the prototype.

I haven't glued this piece together and that's why there are some gaps showing. I'm thinking there are enough walnut "chips" included... I'm going to have to think about this one a little more.

Thoughts?

5 New Wine Bottle Stoppers - A Detailed Look

Here is a closer look at each of the five new wine bottle stoppers that were rently completed...

From the parallel twist series, this wine bottle stopper is constructed using jatoba as the primary wood and walnut for an accent.

Serial #: 2010-001
Details:
~ Total pieces: 121
~ Primary Wood: Jatoba
~ Secondary Wood: Walnut
~ Cap: Sapele
~ Dimensions: 2-1/8” tall, 1” diameter
~ Finish: polyurethane
 





From the 1/2 & 1/2 Twist series, this wine bottle stopper is constructed with jatoba and maple. The contrasting color looks beautiful.

Serial #: 2010-002
Details:
~ Total pieces: 121
~ Woods: Jatoba & Maple
~ Cap: Sapele
~ Dimensions: 2-1/8” tall, 1” diameter
~ Finish: polyurethane

From the Speckled series, this wine bottle stopper is constructed from cherry with walnut accents.

Serial #: 2010-003

Details:

~ Total pieces: 121

~ Primary Wood: Cherry

~ Secondary Wood: Walnut

~ Cap: Sapele

~ Dimensions: 2-1/8” tall, 1” diameter

~ Finish: polyurethane

From the NEW Triple Twist series, this stopper features jatoba with walnut accents.

Serial #: 2010-004

Details:
~ Total pieces: 121
~ Primary Wood: Jatoba
~ Secondary Wood: Walnut
~ Cap: Sapele
~ Dimensions: 2-1/8” tall, 1” diameter
~ Finish: polyurethane





From the Speckled series, this wine bottle stopper is constructed from cherry and has jatoba accents.

Serial #: 2010-005

Details:
~ Total pieces: 121
~ Primary Wood: Cherry
~ Secondary Wood: Jatoba
~ Cap: Sapele
~ Dimensions: 2-1/8” tall, 1” diameter
~ Finish: polyurethane





Each of these wine bottle stoppers are currently available through my Etsy & ArtFire stores.

5 New Wine Bottle Stoppers - Finished

It never ceases to amaze me how much different wood can look once the finish has been applied. Each of these wine bottle stoppers has received 5 coats of polyurethane, applied by hand, and was rubbed down with steel wool prior to each new coat. The natural colors of the wood is just so rich and beautiful!

I'll be posting individual pictures of each of these wine bottle stoppers over the next couple of days.

In the mean time, feel free to take a look at what is currently available in my Etsy shop!

Thank you for looking!

5 New Wine Bottle Stoppers to Start 2010

Over the past couple days I've turned a handful of new wine bottle stoppers. It's been several weeks since I last turned any wine bottle stoppers, so it's been a fun couple of days getting these done! I haven't completed the finish application yet, but I will provide a little sneak peak of the newest additions.

From front to back they are:
1. Parallel Twist w/ Jatoba and Walnut.
2. 1/2 & 1/2 Twist with Jatoba and Maple.
3. Speckled with Cherry and Walnut.
4. Triple Twist with Jatoba and Walnut.
5. Speckled with Cherry and Jatoba.

The Triple Twist is a new series that I've just started. I'll provide further details when this wine bottle stopper is complete!


I'm looking forward to the opportunities that come along with a brand new year!

Cutting Boards

With Christmas creeping up on us I was asked to make a couple cutting boards. Thankfully I had the cutting boards roughed out already, so I just needed to finish them up! here's the final look.

The cutting board is made of curly maple and walnut. The finish is a very easy rubbing of mineral oil. The board measures approx 17"x10.5"x1.5".

I'm really excited to see how the curly maple looks, it just adds that much more dazzle to the cutting board!

I think I might have to add the cutting boards to my Etsy store after the start of the new year.

Segmetned Christmas Tree Ornament

After completing the Segmented Vessel, I decided I'd make the segments on my next piece a little thinner than the 3/4" previously used. Since we are all in the Christmas spirit, I thought I'd make a new ornament for our tree this year. The segments in this piece are 1/4" thick, and this piece includes a total of 92 segments.

Here's the before picture of the ornament blank glued up on the lathe.

After turning, sanding and the first coat of wipeon polyurethane, here's the end result. I'm pretty happy with how this piece came out. I expect this piece will require six or seven coats of polyurethane like the segmented vessel did. Once I get the finish complete, I'll work on getting some additional (a.k.a. better) pictures posted. Oh, and the ornament is about 3-1/5" in diameter. It's also hollow, I drilled out the segmented layers as I did the glue-up.

A New Blog

I would like to take a minute to introduce you to a new blog I will be doing in conjuction with the Woodworking Dungeon. The blog is titled "An Etsy Favorite" and each posting in this series will focus on a specific Etsy store that I find particularly interesting. I will also include an example or two of what it is about the store that I find so intriguing. Be sure to visit and follow along as each new shop is revealed!

I'd like to point out that I am recieving no sort of commission or other form of benefit from the stores that I will be show casing. The sole purpose of this new series is to simply show off the very talented people that I have found since I started my own Etsy store.

If you have not heard of Etsy or have not taken the time to look around at what is offered there, I highly recommend that you do. If you aren't sure where to begin, you can use my Etsy store as a starting place!

A Segmented Vessel

In taking a break from the wine bottle stoppers I've been making, I wanted to make something that I haven't done yet. I've always been very impressed with the vessels that trifern (a fellow woodworker at LumberJocks) has posted, so I thought I would start there.

Now don't go thinking that just because it's not a wine bottle stopper that I'll be turning a single piece of wood. Heck no, a segmenting we will go!

This piece is 6" tall and about 3-3/4" in diameter at its widest point. I did make a conscious effort to design this piece with the golden ratio in mind. I decided to create the piece with pine just in case something went horribly wrong, I didn't want to waste my small supply of hardwood. I'm actually a little surprised how well the pine turned.

I haven't applied a finish to the piece yet. The current state is post sanding and I wiped it down with mineral spirits. I haven't decided if I'm going to stain it or not... I'm thinking I might.

Week in Review

This week started out by spending two full days in bed with the flu and the remainder of the week left me feeling drained and exhausted. I could certainly think of better ways to spend my time!

I dropped of the packed wine bottle stoppers headed to Colorado this morning. It's a nice sense of accomplishment that the order is now on its way. Here's the collection prior to packaging:



There is a total of 2299 individual segments used to complete this collection and no two wine bottle stoppers are the same.

As for the packaging of each wine bottle stopper, I wanted it to be something that would provide protection for the wine bottle stopper when in the mail and when the wine bottle stopper is not in use. I also created a Care and Use card to provide some details about how one should take care of their wine bottle stoppers. This card also provides some details about the specific wine bottle stopper, including the serial # and the wood species used.

I do have a few wine bottle stoppers available at my Etsy store, including the one in the photo above.

Time to Catch-Up

well let's see, it's been so long where should I start?

30 projects in 30 days:
I liked the idea of this challenge. I never thought it would have been as hard as it was. I made it to day 15... I hate to admit defeat, but I got my butt handed to me on this one! I may try this challenge again in the future, but I think I will go in a bit more prepared next time.

wine bottle stoppers:
I wanted to starting making these almost two years ago. I finally started when I was asked if I could make twenty of them for a customer/friend in Colorado. I have finally got them all boxed up and ready to ship now.

Etsy Store:
Now that the order of twenty wine bottle stoppers is complete, I can focus on posting more wine bottle stoppers to my Esty Store. Currently I have seven of them listed. I've got five more glued, drilled, tapped and ready to turn. Yesterday I finished the first glue-up phase on three more.

Other Stuff:
I started working on a bookshelf a while back for my eight year old similar to the one I build for my fifteen year old. I pulled that off the shelf about a week ago to get that moving along again. It would be nice if I could get that finished by Christmas or her birthday on January first, but I'm not going to stress myself out about it.

30 Projects in 30 Days - Day 8

I know it's day 8 and I'm only posting project #s 5 & 6... I'll get caught up!

well there's not much more to say than these two cigar pens should have been done a long time ago, but I seem to recall a saying that I like:

Better late than never!

30 Projects in 30 Days - Project # 4

I finished my fourth project yesterday. I wanted to try something new, so I put a little extra work into coming up with this new wine bottle stopper. For the highlight area of this stopper, I used the open segmentation technique. This technique leave open spaces between the segments leaving the stopper hollow and see-through.

serial # 2009-017

Stopper Stats:

Total Pieces: 121

Primary Wood: Walnut

Secondary Wood: Red Leaf Maple

Cap: Sapele

Dimensions: 2-1/8" tall, 1" diameter

Finish: CA/BLO

here's a picture that shows a little more of the detail.

30 Projects in 30 Days - Day 2

Day 2 project 2 of the June 2009 30 projects in 30 days.

Continuing on my positive start for my 30-in-30 challenge, I’ve completed my 15th segmented wine bottle stopper. With this stopper I've used my Patchwork pattern combining four species of wood; Jatoba, Cherry, Red Leaf Maple and Walnut. The randomness of the assembly gives this pattern a great patchwork quilt type look.

Serial # 2009-015

Stopper Stats:
Total pieces: 121
Wood: Jatoba, Cherry, Red Leaf Maple & Walnut
Cap: Sapele
Dimensions: 2-1/8” tall, 1” diameter
Finish: CA/BLO

To purchase this stopper through my Etsy store, click here.

30 Projects in 30 Days - Day 1

Day 1 project 1 of the June 2009 30 projects in 30 days.

Off to a positive start! I’ve completed my 14th segmented wine bottle stopper (shocker I know!). This stopper is a new pattern that I have named 1/2 & 1/2 Twist.

Serial # 2009-014

Stopper Stats:
Total pieces: 121
Wood: Red Leaf Maple & Walnut
Cap: Sapele
Dimensions: 2-1/8” tall, 1” diameter
Finish: CA/BLO

To purchase this stopper through my Etsy store, click here.

30 Projects in 30 Days - Intro

I have taken up the challenge of a fellow woodworker to create 30 projects in 30 days!

All through the month of June, I shall be creating new projects everyday. I'm expecting to finish several new bottle stoppers, a few pens and hopefully a new shelving unit for my daughter's bedroom.

Items that will be available to purchase will be posted at my Etsy store.

Stay tuned for all of the action!