more pendant ideas

  Now I'm on a jewelry kick thanks to my sis so today I thought I would make an Egyptian Ankh necklace. It is much simpler than the tiki so I'll also make an Egyptian eye. So, I start by cutting the pieces into squares and drawing a grid of 1cm by 1cm. In doing so you can make the design more even. the implement of choice for making these more dainty cuts is the scroll saw and so that you don't cut fingers off, you should use a push stick. A push stick is literally just a long piece of wood that you use to push the wood through the saw. After that is done I'll sand it round and then paint it gold followed by a oil base glaze for the Ankh and I'll stain the eye a deep red color.

tikki amulet

The next project that I'll be showing you is....... a tiki! so to start you should decide on the kind of face you want whether it's scary or sad or humorous is up to you. With mine I chose to be scary/mad. So you take your design and draw it on your chunk of wood. use a fine tipped dremel so that it has an indented look. same as with the indent in the staff  I'm going to burn the wood. then after it's been burned, add two layers of oil.

the finish

For the square at the end, just run it through a chop saw so that the line is straight. Now that all the details are done, take a piece of 80 grit sand paper and sand from top to bottom once or twice to even the layers. Afterwards take a piece of 200 grit sand paper and run it over the staff until smooth. finally add a layer of wax followed by a light sanding grit 200 grit sand paper 2 or 3 times.

chop saw tutorial

burned images

After half an hour of grueling work, the first tikki has been burned. It looked really bad at first but black can't get any blacker so now it is a beautiful dark dark brown.This process takes about twenty to thirty minutes not including the time it takes to heat the pen so it will probably take me another 40 minutes to an hour to finish them all.

ring

On my staff I have built a ring, this ring was made on the lathe by chipping away the wood on either side. Now it's is a fully mobile ring that looks really cool and can spin but be careful because it is very brittle.

on top

The top part of the cane can be whatever you want. I'm going to go simple and old fashioned by sanding into a sphere. Sure it isn't the most interesting of finishes, but it works as a accent. it brings the viewers attention to the detail of the rest of your art.

burning pens

Now, with burning pens you have to be careful because it is easy to burn yourself with them. It takes about five minutes for it to heat up so just be patient. When you go over your work, go slowly and cover the line more then once. And REMEMBER: 

 NEVER TOUCH THE METAL TIPS!!! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MED1qNSsEJ0

thanks to the expert village for their youtube vid

Dremels

The Dremel should be used with a pen attachement for this detailed work, the use of a lower speed and use of the smallest available is key. The tip I will use is about a millimeter in diameter and at a setting of 2 out of 10. The strokes should be slow and steady so as to have an even indentation. although, if you go I quick strokes, then it might be easier to keep even.

The fourth

When you get to the carvings, there are a couple of things you can do to make them. You could burn them with a copper tipped burning pen, indent them with a dremel, or if you’re really adventures, you can use both. I will use both and will go over the proper uses of both tools.

step three

Okay so to cut out the spiral you can use a dremel, a rowter, chisels or a carving knife. Before you begin, you should use a hacksaw to make grooves in the wood so that you don’t chip the outer part of the ring. If you use a rowter, you should test how deep your groove will be on a spare piece of wood. This is a slow and tedious job especially with a knife so it may take you several hours/days.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yew4E_xNCQA

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yvV7SkN9sY

the second step

So as you can see, the cane is a little thicker than I was originally intending but this will still work as a decoration. So, first I put grooves in the bottom of the staff for decoration and then had the body get thicker in a sort of rounded form giving it a sort of wave effect. After that, I drew out the spirals on the way up the body in large loops so as to look like one of the pillars at the barbershops. Up at the top was a tricky idea because I didn’t have the proper tools to measure it so the three tikis aren’t perfectly spaced but they are close. I have yet to decide the top.

how to make a staff

Hey Hey Hey this is the Kaveman and I’ve got something to say. This here is my first blog so send some feed back on how to make it better if you can think of anything. Now, this first blog is all about are shop projects and this first one, is a cane. You can make a cane any way you want but it’s most effective just to use a lathe*.  To use a lathe, the wood must first be perfectly square in height and width. Then, measuring the length cut two lines right across the center. Make sure your tools are sharp, press lightly and go for it. This project will probably take about a month but I’m hoping that I can get it done.

(If you want to make a little project on the side, try making a cutting board.)

The Idea

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-Ego8B2eVQ