mtnman

This is a cradle I made before my oldest granddaughter was born -- 10 years ago. I designed it so it will rock in the frame or can be lifted out to rock on the floor. I cut the curves with a sabre saw, as I hadn't discovered scroll saws at the time. I believe it is made from cherry. I took the picture on a recent visit.

My granddaughter is having a birthday, so I decided to tackle a box for her. She really likes animals, especially horses, so I decided to try inlay. I did a lot of reading on the forum and designed a box based on some wood that I had laying around. The box is walnut and maple. The maple is 5/4" thick and the walnut is 3/8". The lid has a piece of walnut inside tapered to just fit into the top of the box.

Today I finished my second larger intarsia. It was designed as a retirement present for a pilot who has been flying us and our gear into the Grand Canyon for lots longer than the 7 years I've been flying with him.

The water in the Little Colorado River in this area is a turquoise color and the sky is a deep dark blue. Rather than use paint or wood that wouldn't be close to the right color, I ended up using stained glass. The sky is placed behind the wood intarsia pieces -- on the...

It is now finished and hanging on the wall where I can admire it from the comfort of my recliner. I sent a pic to Joyce Turley, the artist of the illustration I used as a pattern. It has been a whirlwind of learning, I had to do a few tweeks to get the frame to fit, then used dowels (2 per corner) to give me a solid butt joint on the frame.

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I've recut some pieces -- some because of poor fit and some because I didn't like the color of wood I initially chose. I changed out the water (right side above the white line) so it wasn't the same color as the sky. Now I'm in the process of gluing it up. I clamped down 2 framing squares to my table to make sure that things go together properly and remain square as they were designed. That seems to help a LOT as I glue the pieces together. Gluing -- like everything else in this project --...