How to Make a Wooden Ornament on a Lathe

Anytime is a good time to work with Proxxon tools, but the holidays offer exceptional opportunities to make special items. Today I'm sharing how I turned this wooden ornament on the Proxxon Micro Woodturning Lathe.

Supplies and Equipment

• ½" hard wood dowel, 8" to 9" in length
• Small eye screw
• Proxxon Micro Woodturning Lathe
• Proxxon Micro Bandsaw MBS/E
• Proxxon Disc Sander TSG 250/E
• Bowl gouge turning tool
• Center square
• Sandpaper in varying grits—100, 150, 220, 320, 400
• Polishing wax

Instructions

1. Using a center square mark the center of the dowel.
   
2. Use an awl to pierce a pilot hole in the center of the dowel.
   
3. Load the unmarked end of the dowel into the chuck on the headstock. 
   
4. Mount the tail stock firmly into the divot that you pierced in Step 2.
   
5. Begin shaping the piece using a bowl gouge.
   
6. While the piece is still intact, but not quit finished, begin the sanding process. While the lathe is turning use progressively finer grits of sandpaper is smooth the piece. I started with 100 grit and moved to 150, 220, 320, and finally, 400.
   
7. Carefully continue to shape the narrow end of the piece alternating with the bowl gouge and sandpaper until the tail piece falls away.
8. Polish with wax while the remaining piece is still in the lathe.
   
9. Remove the piece from the lathe, and cut away the end using the bandsaw.
10. Lightly sand the cut edge on the disc sander, and polish the end with wax.
    
11. Attach a small eye screw to the wide end.

Hang your ornament and enjoy!!

Carole

Personalized Christmas Ornament With The Proxxon Glass Engraving Set

Hi everyone! Tammy here today with a personalized Christmas ornament that I engraved with the Proxxon Glass Engraving Kit. I love to make Christmas ornaments for the members of my family every year. I love to base them on what is currently going on in their life. This year is the first year that my daughter is a cheerleader, so I thought it would be fun to make her this ornament. Here is how I made it.

Supplies:
Proxxon Glass Engraving Kit
Glass Christmas Ornament
Cheerleader silhouette
Removable Glue Dots
Sequins
Ribbon
Plastic gem
Black fine point Sharpie pen

Directions:

Print out the silhouette that you would like to trace with the Proxxon Glass Engraver and secure it to the back of the ornament with a couple Glue Dots. 

 Trace the silhouette with your Proxxon Glass Engraver tool.

Add sequins to the inside of the ornament.

Add a plastic gem to the top of the ornament with a Glue Dot.

Add a piece of ribbon to the loop at the top of the ornament so you will be able to hang it on your tree.

I also used a fine point Sharpie marker to outline the engraving so it would stand out more with the sequins inside.

My daughter loves her ornament so much she already has it hanging on her bookshelf in her room :) She told me she is looking forward to hanging it on the tree this year! It is so easy to make personalized items with the Proxxon Glass Engraving Kit, I hope you give it a try today!

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Snowflakes 5¢

Yikes!! Only 82 days until Christmas!! Hope that's enough time for me to complete all the holiday projects spinning around in my head. Here's one I can't wait to display!

I adapted my snowman from Steve Good's snowman sign pattern. I prepared my pattern in Make-the-Cut, and mounted it onto 1/4" MDF (medium-density fiberboard) using these instructions:

1. Cover the surface of the substrate with painter's tape
2. Spray the back of the pattern with spray adhesive
3. Mount the pattern on top of the painter's tape

The spray adhesive holds the pattern in place, and the painter's tape makes removing it a breeze. I used my Proxxon Scroll Saw to cut the snowman pieces.

Next, I used the Proxxon Professional Rotary Tool to drill a small hole in the sign to hang a snowflake charm. I sealed the MDF with an acrylic medium before spray painting the individual pieces. When they were dry I assembled the snowman using E6000.

I'm never happy with my hand lettering, so I cut the words for the sign out of vinyl using my Zing electronic cutter.

I covered the stand piece with artist's cement and liberally sprinkled the surface with crystal glitter. While the cement was still wet, I stood the snowman in the "snow." When the artist's cement dried it formed a secure bond with the figure.

Love how he turned out!!

Carole

~Baby It's Cold Outside~ Proxxon Design Team Project!!

~Baby It's Cold Outside~

Created by Sherri Welser

Christmas is my very favorite time of the year and living in Upstate NY we have plenty of "Baby It's Cold Outside" moments! So here is a very fun and easy project to spread a little Holiday cheer and hold some favorite pairs of mittens! 

~Supplies~

Piece of plywood ( 9 x 21 in) with 2 holes drilled and sanded using the Proxxon Delta Sander OZI/E

Letter Stencils

White crackle paint (  I used Ranger Distress Paint)

Red Clothes Pins ( or paint them yourself)

Red ink Pad (  I used Ranger "Barn Door" Distress Ink)

Gold Pen ( Signo Uniball)

Gold Paint

Ribbon for hanging

Glue Gun

Glitter glue

1) After preparing your board by sanding using the delta sander OZI/E,( light grit) paint a coat of white crackle paint and let dry. Lightly sand the board to distress it a but more.

2) Using the 'Red Barn" Distress Ink Pad lightly go around the edges of the board and across the front adding a distressed/aged look.

3) Using your stencil and red ink pad, fill in the letters of the stencil to spell out "Baby I'ts Cold Outside" ( I used my finger to apply the ink inside the letters)

4) Use the gold pen to draw some snowflakes on the clothes pins and glue to the board at the bottom with the glue gun.

5) Using the ribbon, attach to each side and add some fun paper ephemera

6)Add a little glitter glue to the top to add holiday magic to your project!
7) Add some fun gold doodles to the letters using both the gold pen and gold paint.

You now are ready to grab your favorite mittens and hang them up! 

Hope you enjoy this fun vintage style project and Happy Holidays!!

~Santa Clause is Coming to Town~ PROXXON DT Wooden Whimsy Project by Sherri Welser

Santa Clause is Coming to Town"

Wooden Whimsy by

Sherri Welser

Christmas time  is my most favorite time of the year and I love to decorate my house with beautiful white lights and whimsy! To create this whimsical wooden piece I used wooden scraps from the recent building  of my  art studio. The Santa shape was a broken piece of 2 x 4 so I just went with that shape(  it resembled an old fashioned Santa with his tall hat on). For the birdhouse hole I just found a 2 x4 with a knot hole in it! I also wanted it to look distressed so I did some steps below to create that look. So come and join me for some holiday whimsy!

~Supplies~

PROXXON Scroll saw-DSH-E

PROXXON Delta Sander-OZI-E

Scrap pieces of 2 x 4 - from 1-2 feet in length

Acrylic paints ( white, black,skin tone,red,blue and green)

Modeling paste

Palette knife 

Glue gun/glue sticks

Crooked wooden stick for the walking stick

 Vintage metal key

Paper  holiday ephemera

Gold Gel Pen

~Steps~

1) Decide what size you want to make your wooden cut outs and cut them using the Proxxon Scroll Saw DSH-E

2) Using the Delta Sander OZI-E sand the edges of the pieces.

3) Using the acrylics paint all your wooden pieces and let dry. I used the Tim Holtz line of distressed crackle paint for the birdhouse in white after using a blue ink pad to add some color as a distressing factor.I also added a small broken piece of stick for the perch on the birdhouse.

4) Distress  the edges of the other pieces with a sepia ink pad.

5)To assemble, I used the glue gun to glue things in place.

6) Use the skin tone paint and paint an area on Santa for his face and beard.

7)Use the modeling paste to create the  beard on Santa and the effect of snow on the wooden pieces with a palette knife and let dry.

8) Use your chosen items of ephemera for decorating your whimsical pieces. Glue down with your glue gun.

9) Use your gold gel pen to do some detail work on Santa.

This is such a fun creative project and I hope you have as much fun as I did!

 Have fun and Happy Holidays!!