Workshop Catalog

This item is constructed of laminated wood varying in widths from 1/8" to 3/4".  The laminated block of wood is then cut in a circular pattern with a diameter of approximately 12" on the bandsaw.  The hole is cut with a forstner bit.  Several passes on various sanders completes the finishing process.  The item is branded on the bottom with an electric branding iron before it receives several coats of clear polyurethane finish.

This is a trivet or a wall hanging.  It is the choice of the owner of this item.  As a trivet it will withstand heat and liquid spills.  It is finished with several coats of polyurethane varnish.  The woods used to create the illusion of the boxes are walnut, the darkest of the box sides, cherry, the lightest of the dark sides and maple for the lighest sides of the boxes.  The width of the trivet is appoximatey 8 inches.  The pieces of the boxes are cut on a miter saw and glued to a backing that may be a circular piece of plywood or a solid piece of aspen.  The backings are approximately 1/4 inches and the wood pieces making up the design are also about 1/4 inches in depth.  Each trivet is branded on the bottom with an electric branding iron.

This is a wall hanging.  The cross is finished with several coats of polyurethane varnish.  The woods used to create the cross are Jatoba, the darkest wood, and maple for the inlay pieces.  The width of the cross is appoximately 8 inches.  The height of the cross is approximately 10 inches. The pieces of the cross are approximately 2 inches wide and 3/4 inches in depth.  The back is drilled so that the cross may be hung on a wall.  Or the cross may stand on a flat surface. Each cross is branded on the back with an electric branding iron.

The Wine Display Wall Shelf is a self supporting shelf affixed permanently to the wall. The shelf is painted with high gloss black paint. The bowed wine bottle holders are maple protected with several layers of polyurethane varnish. This shelf may be purchased directly from the workshop. If you are interested, please contact the gnomes through the eMail address on the previous web page.

The picture frames are also a product of the shop. They are constructed of MDF and coated with a material into which is inscribed a design. The frame is then painted using various techniques to simulate a variety of surfaces, such as metal, fabric, etc. If you are interested in a frame please contact the workshop using the eMail address on the previous web page.

The black sconce in the upper left of the image is also made from MDF. This particular sconce is painted black, but may be painted any color to suit the decor of the room or wall it hangs on. Please contect the workshop directly if you are interested in one or more of the sconces.

The set of four coasters are made from Jatoba with maple inlay. They are 3 1/2 inches square and coated with several layers of polyurethane finish. The polurethane finish will protect each from the heat or cold and any liquid that might come in contact with the surface of the coaster. Each is branded on the back with the name of the craftsman who created the coasters.

The trivet is made from spalted maple. It is comprised of squares and triangles arranged in a manner that creates 12 sides. The trivet is approximately 8 inches in diameter. The gnomes are trying a different backing for the trivets. The backing is approximately 1/4 inch thick of laminated popular or aspen. The combination of the 1/4 inch spalted maple and the backing creates a very stable and durable item to be used as a trivet or wall hanging.

The bowl or bowl holder is made from spalted maple. This item is 7 inches wide and 3 inched high. Two nearly identical turning were made, each cut in half and then glued back together to form this bowl/bowl holder. The workshop gnomes are experimenting with wood turning projects based on articles in some very old "Fine Woodworking" magazines. Some of the exercises have turned out respectable, others have ended up in the firewood box as some very fancy firewood.

The candle holders are experiments in off center woodturning. The candle holders are maple and vary from 5 inches to 8 inches tall. The design is made by turning the object from different centers. The change in centers varies from one to four. The one with four transition sort of looks like a gasoline engine crankshaft. The offset is about 1/4 inch from the center of the initial wood blank.

The candle holders/bowls are items turned from a variety of woods. This is just an example of many available produced by the gnomes in the shop. This item may be used as a candle holder or as a bowl. The choice is yours. Either option, bowl or candle holder, when used in that configuration, appears as if the item was made for that purpose.

The round things are items turned from a variety of woods. These are some of the round things available in the shop. These items, round things, are experiments using the skew chisel on the lathe with various woods. The skew chisel can be difficult to use, but when mastered many interesting shapes can be turned. The round things show the variety of shapes. When the item is finished no sanding is required. The skew chisel makes a very clean cut and the surface of the item turned is smoother than if it has been sanded. Someone wrote that one sands only to prepare the surface for a sealer or some sort of coating. Thus if none is to be used, the turned item can be finished with careful, skilled use of the skew chisel.

All of the round things are gone, given away to the children who visited the Spectrum Wood booth at the last Arts and Crafts show. Several puzzles were on display for sale and to be solved. Many young and not so young people stopped by to try and solve the puzzles. If they were able to solve the puzzle, the gnome at the booth at the time let them select one of the round things as their reward. And throughout the day the puzzles were solved many times leaving no round things or mushrooms in stock.

Several of the workshop gnomes have been creating more mushrooms and small tops to replenish the supply of prizes for the puzzle solvers.

The creation of mushrooms serve several pusposes: 1-to create sawdust, 2-to use up small scraps of wood and 3-to provide practice creating turned objects on the lathe. The mushrooms make interesting conversation pieces as they sit around doing absolutely nothing. Or perhaps they can be used by someone who is on a sodium restricted diet as salt shakers. All of the mushrooms are unfinished in that there is no coating or sealant on them. Their final shape is determined by the size of the scrap wood, the tools used to create the mushroom and the texture of the wood.

Every once in awhile one ends up making firewood rather than a useful item. The image is one of these cases. Attempting to turn a goblet (see the next items) the wood was not up to the stress and flew off the lathe twice. All the broken pieces have not been found as they flew to many parts of the shop.

Not to waste the remaining turning, a couple nut cups were turned. Unfortunately the nut cups turned out be quite small and maybe will hold two or three cashew nuts.

The larger items or wooden goblets was the goal when the pieces of walnut and maple were put into the lathe. But the wood had other surprises with the small unseen cracks. One can see the relative size of the nut cups compared to the expected size of the goblets from sucessful goblet creations.

The goblets are about 6 inches tall and from 2 to 4 inches in diameter.

This is an image, in wood, of the Head Gnome of the workshop. He keeps all activities under control, making sure objects are created, common sense is used while using the power tools and keeping the shop running.

This is an example of intarsia, or an image made from various species of wood to create a picture. The woods used to create this intarsia are purple heart, walnut, maple, holly, cherry, bloodwood, yellow heart and pear.

These goblets are the beginnings of many wood turnings now being produced by the Spectrum Wood Shop. Though not large, they show what can be done with scraps of lumber from a variety of sources. Here maple and walnut or cherry and maple were glued together to create a turning blank from which the goblets were created. Larger objects such as bowls and lidded boxes are being created from larger pieces of stock.

These goblets are two of many wood turnings now being created in the Spectrum Wood Shop. These goblets are turned off axis, that is the axis of rotation is changed to produce the contour of the stem. About 15 degrees of used to change the axis. A four jaw chuck is used to hold the blank to produce the goblet, then one of the jaws is offset by 15 degrees and the next portion of the stem is turned. This is repeated several times to produce the contour of the stem.

This is the one of the three items that will be used this year, 2011 to enter Arts and Crafts Fairs that are juried.

These trivets tell a story, at least in the creator's mind. The left trivet is called "The Son (Sun). You pick the title according to your religious convictions. The woods used are walnut, the cross, bloodwood, the sun and maple for the sky. Note the shading from light to dark as one gets further away from the center of the trivet.

Is the trivet on the right flat or three dimensional? It is flat, but many who see it from a distance have to come up to it and run there hand over it to convince their brain that it is indeed flat. With the mouse over the image, right click then select "View Image" to see a larger images of the trivets.

This is the one of the three items that will be used this year, 2011 to enter Arts and Crafts Fairs that are juried.

This is a new venture in wood turning for the Spectrum Wood Shop. These are two of several turned boxes that have been created in the wood shop. Attention must be paid to creating a tight fit, or "pop" when the lid is removed from the box. The box on the left achieved the requisite "pop". The box on the right is called "The Drop". The lid is loose fitting and represents a liquid where a drop has entered and returned from the surface. The drop makes a nice handle to remove the top of the box.

This is the one of the three items that will be used this year, 2011 to enter Arts and Crafts Fairs that are juried.