Caryn and I have been trying to make most our Christmas gifts for the past few years. Just thought I’d share a few of the things we came up with from this year (well, last year actually).
A couple different spatula’s and spoons; made from red cedar and black locust. All the wood was found locally, dried. Shaped on the bandsaw, and then carved with a knife, and then sanded…and sanded and then more sanding:
The little guys below are a team effort. I carved them from yellow cedar, and Caryn decorated them.
This is a piece of yellow cedar burl that a friend found; I made a box out of it and finished it with tung oil:
Just an assortment of burly wood with rare earth magnets attached for a variety of uses:
A small salt spoon carved from cherry wood found in Caryn’s parents back yard.
Caryn was busy on the sewing machine this year. These are matching pajama’s for family, busy busy!
Caryn is getting pretty dialed at turning pens on the lathe. These are her most recent effort, beautiful!
That’s most of the stuff we did this year for Christmas. As far as toys for the nephews, we talked to our family and all decided to try and give without plastic and batteries. So we ordered some great wood trucks from naturalpod that were designed in Germany. I love well designed, long lasting, creative, open ended toys for kids.
Not much mountain bike news lately. I am looking forward to a trip to California to do some mountain biking with the magazines later in January though.
Seeya!
RL
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Ryan-
You & Caryn are so talented! Great ideas!! I always attempt to be crafty around the holidays but seem to become too busy to finish anything…maybe this year I’ll start in January! hahaha!!
Talk to you later,
Allison
Those are so great you guys! Ryan, I don’t know if you’ve heard, but handmade toys makers, and smaller toy manufacturers, have a battle in the U.S. right now, there’s more about it here; http://coolmompicks.com/savehandmade/.
And, you know, if you ever have any spare wooden spoons looking for a home…;)
you two are quite the crafty gifters! I hope you got some family portraits in the PJs!
Great to meet you down at Sea Otter Klay! We do have some pretty darn cute photos of the bunch of us
Keep us posted if you’re ever up in our area visiting family!