Blue around the gills. Bluegill in pine and aspen.

A follow up to the No Trout About It! Rainbow Trout Proof of Concept in Pine and Aspen post.  A second trout has been completed and I think that officially transitions it from Proof of Concept to Real Deal.  In addition to the trout, a bluegill has also joined the school.  These both went smoother as I tried to implement improvements from the Proof.  The biggest improvements came from:

1. Just using a handheld jigsaw for the rough cuts.  Scroll saws are great but with the thickness of the board I was using, I frequently ended up with slanted saw blades and highly angled fish edges.
2. A new router bit to make the edging faster, smoother, and easier.  It's still not the best blade but it's a huge jump. 

My first pass at painting the bluegill was awful.  Seriously terribly.  I had to sand the paint off and start over.  Ugh.  I do really like the way the final bluegill turned out though.  I'm glad I didn't give in and just toss the fish.

Bluegill mounting board is approximately 9" wide and 7" tall.
Trout mounting board is approximately 16" and 7.5" tall.

Mounting board made with Aspen.  Trout made with pine and finished with acrylic paint.  Both have a satin polyurethane coating.

And here's the latest trout...pretty much the same as the other one but facing the other direction (to get that knot in the wood where I liked it).

No Trout About It! Rainbow Trout Proof of Concept in Pine and Aspen

No trout about it*, I'm excited about this one.

This Rainbow Trout is closer to the project I had in mind when I started the Skull from before.  That was building up to this.

I went into this project with the expectation that I'd mess something--or several somethings--up.  Even that I might mess things up so badly that the whole thing had to be scrapped.  And, even if things went perfectly, I'd find something I wished I had done better.  With that in mind, my process was focused more on speed rather than a perfect implementation.  That's a difficult thing for me.  Anyway, the fish and mounting board look great from several feet away.  Up close, well...

I did learn from the experience and will do things differently on future projects:

1. Take it easy with the scroll saw.  I ended up doing a lot of sanding anyway and some of the errant scroll saw (mis)cuts just created more work later.  I would've been better off leaving more margin and working my way into the final cut line instead of trying to follow it too closely with the saw.
2. Get some new scroll saw blades and a new router bit.  The blades I had were hurting before I even started and they haven't gotten any better.  The router bit I had was a cheap one and burned the edge of the mounting board.  The dark stain covered this up pretty well but it looked ugly before.
3. Leave some distressing on the fish.  I sanded the fish fairly well.  At least up to the point where I thought "It's just a proof of concept, enough already".  In the end, some of the leftover marks and scratches actually look good under the paint wash.
4. Practice with the paint a bit more.  If I'd gone a little heavier on the water, the colors would've blended better.  The water soaked in really, really fast and there already isn't a lot of working time with acrylics.

Fish is approximately 16" long (a decent catch!) with the mounting board being around 19" x 7".

Mounting board made with Aspen.  Trout made with pine and finished with acrylic paint.  Both have a satin polyurethane coating.

*See Psych Season 7, Episode 14

Scroll Saw Fun: Pine Skull

This was a bit of an impromptu project.  I've been thinking I'd use the scroll saw to make some kind of wall hanging for some time (seriously, how many projects have I been thinking about for months/years?) but was always thinking it would be some kind of wildlife.  Stepping out to the garage, I found my stack of scrap wood was woefully lacking.  Fortunately, there was one piece that was clean (e.g. it hadn't already been used for test cuts, test drilling, wood burning, etc) and of the right proportions for a skull.

I won't say it's anatomically correct but it gets the point across.  I also toyed with the idea of giving it a yellow, Skeletor-esque wash but a) the skull wasn't evil looking enough for Skeletor, b) I had some dark stain purchased on clearance I was aching to try, and c) a friend on Facebook thought dark stain sounded good.


Pine.  Approximately 8" tall x 5" wide x 3/4" thick.

Mid-Century Inspired Welcome Mat

This has actually be sitting out on our front porch for a couple years.  The porch is covered so it hasn't been exposed to all the elements but it's held up really well.  It's loosely inspired by MCM slat benches (see below).  If I had space for such a bench, I'd be making on those.

The mat was constructed with with scrap cedar cut down to a consistent width (approximately 1") and length (approximately 20"), turned on end, and then tied together with sisal rope.  

The thing that stands out most to me is getting to drill all those holes with my oldest daughter who was maybe 5 at the time.  

Mid-Century Inspired Plant Stand

It's no secret I dig Mid-Century design: houses, furniture, furnishings, Formica, the whole shebang.

Bullet planters fall snugly into this category.  There are companies like Hip Haven making new bullet planters and maybe, at some point, I can invest in one but the finances won't allow that just yet.  RetroRenovation (awesome, awesome site, btw) also has plans to make a bullet planter and I dug their design quite a bit.

However, I like the design side as much as the building side so I wanted to come up with something all my own.  Also...I had maple leftover from the Mondrian Inspired Clock and if I didn't use it up, it would end up sitting in my garage until I tripped over it or spilled paint on it.  It's entirely possible I'd trip over it while carrying paint.

This is the result.  I'm simultaneously super proud and super embarrassed by the terribly complex joints.  I'm also pretty pumped that we've kept the plant alive long enough that the vines now reach the floor.

Mondrian Inspired Clock

I won't take credit for the idea of this clock.  Not only is it heavily influenced by Piet Mondrian but there are also creators making very similar clocks on Etsy.

I did add personal touches.  The colored panels are clear acrylic panels painted on the reverse side to keep the gloss of the plastic.  I remember doing the same thing when painting the clear plastic bodies for my radio control Kyosho Raider as a kid.  The frame and internal boards are maple and the clock face is cherry.  The numbers were cut from poplar using a scroll saw, sander, and a font that looked at least a little mid-century.  Finally, the clock mechanism and hands (painted later) came from Klockit.

I ain't getting on no plane!

I started this project a long, long time ago.  At about 75% complete, it began an extended period of sitting on a shelf waiting on some tools (and my thinking I'd just start over and fix my mistakes).  Eventually, I picked up those tools and figured an imperfect but completed project was better than the perfect one in the back of my brain.  Anyway, I finally finished it.

It's not perfect but I'm happy with the results.  

Constructed from poplar, a little Sculpey, craft wheels, and some trusty Rust-Oleum.