Wedding Cross

Made this one for a friend at the day job.  She has a family wedding coming up in May and wanted this as a gift for the happy couple.  About 31/2 hours in this one.  It measures 10 x 14.  Good size to hang on a wall. 
The pattern for this cross is from Sue May of Pretoria, South Africa.  Her website scrollsawartist.com is a treasure trove of terrific patterns.  She has many cross patterns such as this one covering all kinds of events and professions.  Another one I have found to be very popular and a good seller at craft shows is the Nativity Cross depicting the birth of Jesus.
The really nice thing about Sue's patterns is that you don't have to wait for them to arrive in the mail you can down load them right from her site.
Thanks for checking in.  Come back often.

Eye Catcher!

Finished this one a couple of days ago.  It is one of my favorites.  Arguably the most important verse in the New Testament, the promise of salvation.  This is what I call an eye catcher when displayed at craft shows.  It draws a lot of "oohs and ahhs" and always sparks the question "How long did that take you to cut."  Well the total time for this project is about seven hours.  I work on it over the course of a week cutting about an hour and a half at a time. Just drilling all the holes for the letters takes about an hour.  Don't sell man of these because the of the price but I have sold everyone I've made.  The current price on this one is $65 which doesn't even come close to covering my time but the eye catching appeal usually draws people in to look at my other work and generally leads to other sales.  I won't let it go for less than that and I often have people try to talk me down on it.  Whenever I do sell one I need to make another right away. 

On the website front, another page has been added to terrysscrollshoppe.com which details the scroll
saw process.  The next step now in the works is to compile a products page with prices and then an order form. I'm going to see how it goes for a while taking individual orders before investing in Paypal or a shopping cart feature.  The challenge is going to be continually adding fresh content to keep people coming back.  Will probably do that by adding new products to the home page.  I've looked at some other websites that I like and will try to pattern my after them.  The challenge is always going to be time.  Still have the day job and a really lousy shift on that right now, but at least my mornings are free to do this stuff.  Plus, the weather is finally getting nicer so biking, golf, and fishing have to be worked in as well.

Thanks for looking in,  Check back again soon.

Confirmaton Present

Special order from a lady at the day job. The cross is for her son's confirmation. She wanted something for him to hang on his wall. This one was designed by Dirk Boleman and was meant to be a Christmas tree ornament or pendant. I doubled the size of the patter and it came out to be about 8" by 10". The wood is Cherry finished in Danish oil . It will darken over time. I like the way it turned out. Think I'll make a few more of these.

A Place to Hang Your Hat

This is a simple little project that I have had a lot of demand for. People love things made for their kids and if you add their names to the project they love it even more. I've made dozens of these for people at my day job. When I finish one and bring it in I usually get about five more orders!

It is made from a 3/4 by 4 inch piece of clear pine cut to a length of 24 inches and then the 3 1/2

inch shaker pegs are added and a couple of holes drilled at the ends for hanging purposes. Buttons cover the holes. The child's name is added at the top, cut from the same piece of lumber.

The name is then glued to the top of the board.

I leave them unpainted and unfinished, so the customer can finish them anyway they choose.

On another note: I have added a second page to my website http://terrysscrollshoppe.com. It is called "The Scroll Saw Process". Many times people have asked me "How do you do that?" This page describes the process in some detail and pictures are provided.

Next step for the website is a products page and a contact form for ordering.

Due to a shift change at work, I have been working on the website in the morning hours. Hope to have a lot of additions in the near future so keep checking in there often. I will also be putting a link to this blog there as well.

HERE COME THE IRISH!

Yes my friends it's just a week a way from that magical day when we'll drink green beer, sing those old Irish ballads, and wear green. Yes the tears will be flowing down the cheeks of some inebriated mick, as he slurs the words to "Danny Boy" and just barely makes it to the bathroom in time to see that green beer again!

So I thought I'd make this shamrock puzzle from a pattern I found on line. The creator of the pattern is unknown. I like the way the pain job turned out. I basically suck at painting but using the different shades of green worked out real nice for this one.

Been working on a lot of things lately. One thing keeping me busy is learning the basics of Corel Draw for drawing scroll saw patterns. Soon you should be seeing some Terry's Scroll Shoppe originals on this blogspot. I have the tremendous aide of scroll saw guru Steve Good. Steve has been posting scroll saw pattern tutorials using Corel Draw. I am having a lot of fun following them and creating some simple patterns. The more complex ones will come later.

Another thing I have been working on this week is the http://terrysscrollshoppe.com website!

Yes! After letting it sit idle for more than a year I am working on adding some pages. The current one is about the scroll saw process and takes you through the steps I use to create a project.

Also planning a products page with items for sale and a contact page for ordering. I am finally motivated to do something with it and I hope to have those pages up soon. Having said that, I also have some orders to fill for some of my wonderful customers right here in town.

Gotta go to work. Look for more later here on the blogspot.

Unlocking Scroller's Block

Was sitting around last weekend wanting to cut something but didn't know what. I wasn't real thrilled with the latest offerings in Woodworiking and Crafts magazine so I began looking around the shop for some wood and found a half inch thick piece of wood about 7 inches square and a quarter inch piece of bloodwood. Valentines day was coming up and I seemed to remember Steve Good had a pattern for a heart shaped basket and so I went to his on line catalog containing hundreds of free patterns for the downloading and I found this little beauty.

About two hours of cutting and another one sanding, gluing and finishing and there you have it.

I went back to Steve's catalog and looked for some more fun things to cut and there were several to choose from, but what caught my eye this time was a neat little stand he designed for the I-pad computer. Well I don't have an I pad but I do have the Kindle Fire and this project works real well for that too as you can see.

Found some other things I hope to cut in the near future when I get some time. Right now I have a couple of orders to fill. More on that in a future post.

It is Winter

It is winter and we are finally starting to get some significant snow here. Want to make time for a little cross country skiing but a recent bout with cold and flu have kept me off the trails and out of the shop. Been battling a bad cough for the past week and afraid it may have something to do with dust in the shop. I work too often without a dust mask. That is going to have to change.
I suppose I should explain the picture of the tulips with the caption "This is Winter". Well it is kind of a reminder that when the sun returns with some warmth about mid April to early May,
those tulips that you worked so hard to plant and nourish last fall will start emerging and filling your yards and gardens with beauty.
These little beauties are the result of last weekend's work in the shop (which may have contributed to this nagging cough I've had for the past week. They are made from pieces of 2x2 and are a result of compound cutting. The pattern was designed by Diane Thompson. I am very pleased with the way the picture came out. I received a photographers light box specially designed for taking photos of small projects and it gives the pictures a nice professional quality. I am a little less pleased with the paint job. That is something I am still trying to master and so far it is pretty amateurish. I must say though, that I think they look fairly good compared to some other projects I've tried to paint. They kind of give me the inclination to go to Holland, Michigan this spring for a weekend at the tulip festival. If you've never been there for it put it on your bucket list. It is quite amazing to see and ocean of multicolored tulips as far as the eye can see. Oh, they also have an excellent craft fair that weekend too. Might just have to look into that.