Bird House Earrings

[joe greiner]

These little whimsies have been quite well received. Turned from ramin dowel, 7/16in (11mm) diameter. Black acrylic paint in the doorway, spray clear satin polyurethane overall. Even with a template, I didn't have a prayer of making two identical, so I just made 36 of them. (Planned to make more to match hook supply, but ran out of dowel.) Thirty-five survived final assembly. (Broke one of the perches flush while gluing.) Of those, I found 16 close-enough matches to make pairs. Gifts to friends, relatives, and neighbors/neighbours.

Joe

[echnidna]

They look good Joe,

[lubbing5cherubs]

They are gorgeous. I love to know how you do something like that. They are awesome.
Toni

[TTIT]

You're a sucker for punishment Joe! ;) Cool idea though - they look good - and I like that you've put a metric scale in the pic for us down here!:D

[joe greiner]

Thanks, all. Not much punishment when I'm at the lathe. More like a welcome distraction from all the woes when I have to concentrate so hard to avoid big time oops.

I've gotten some more fine-grained dowel. I'll do a WIP sometime next month. For now, lots of round things to deliver for Christmas. Best wishes to all of you for a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, etc.

Joe

[ticklingmedusa]

my wife had a pair of those but never wore them in evening dresses...
due to guano deposits on bare shoulders:D
seriously, they are very nice.
tm

[Gil Jones]

Nice work on the mini bird houses, Joe.

[BernieP]

G'Day Joe

Yet another great idea, very creative and a nice job

Cheers
Bernie

[rodent]

:DOne flew over the cookus nest . Or i should say thats almost as mad as me im in the middle of turning some split turned ebony ear rings.ill send some pics when there done.

[joe greiner]

Thanks, all. Not much punishment when I'm at the lathe. More like a welcome distraction from all the woes when I have to concentrate so hard to avoid big time oops.

I've gotten some more fine-grained dowel. I'll do a WIP sometime next month. For now, lots of round things to deliver for Christmas. Best wishes to all of you for a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, etc.

Joe

Well, it looks like January is a little late this year. I'd intended to post the procedure around February, but got interrupted by other demands. The delay allowed me to think about some improvements, though. I'd made the first batch with individual dowel blanks about two inches long. I made a small steady rest to enable use of the entire dowel as a blank, with significantly less waste. Part way through the second batch, I refined the use of measuring instruments (ordinary tools, actually) to achieve more uniformity and easier pairing.

In any event, a promise made is a debt unpaid, so the procedure is here:

http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/showthread.php?t=57866

Joe