Thread: "Gracie Giraffe"

Last Christmas, I made a lovely pink hobby horse for a little grand-daughter..... https://www.woodworkforums.com/f174/hobby-horse-86293/

The horse has been so well received by the little girl and her younger sister that a few weeks ago, I received this message in an email from her dad ...

"if you're ever thinking of presents, a hobby horse for XXXX would be my vote. The pink horse gets fought over sometimes."

In a subsequent email, he gave me another clue ...

"Dad,
I was thinking that a hobby horse could be hobby giraffe, tiger, camel, or another animal, if you needed creative license."

So....

From this picture found on the web...


Click for full size - Uploaded with plasq's Skitch


.... the head has been borrowed and 'photoshopped' to make it kinder and more 'girly' with a deeper jaw, eyelashes, and hazardous sharp points softened ...


Click for full size - Uploaded with plasq's Skitch


Then, the pattern for the head gets drafted on to a piece of 19 mm thick pine...


Click for full size - Uploaded with plasq's Skitch


Along the way, my wife and I decided to give the giraffe a nice lady-like name to reflect her placid nature and we came up with the name, "Gracie."

So after a bit of bandsawing, edge routing and painting, voila! ...


Click for full size - Uploaded with plasq's Skitch


General construction dimensions are similar to those used for the pink hobby horse referred to above and they seem to work pretty well for little girls so if anyone needs a guide on dimensions, have a look at the write-up about that horse in this link ... https://www.woodworkforums.com/f174/hobby-horse-86293/

One minor difference this time is in relation to the base. Last time, I made a bulbous tear-drop base to counter weight the horse's head so as to balance the horse well for a little child. That use of a bulb instead of wheels has appeared to work well and is indeed my son's preference again so I have given the giraffe a tear drop base. However, because the pine used in this giraffe is noticeably less dense than in the pink horse, not so much counter weight was required in the base and so the bulb is two dimensional this time rather than three dimensional as was the case with the horse. Also contributing to this is that I made the stick part of the hobby giraffe a little wider than last time and that seems to have contributed to spreading the balance better.


One question that I might ask of experienced toy makers, please, is in relation to the final finish. Apart from the black trim which is a gloss enamel, all of the paints used on the horse are external acrylic leftovers from various projects around my home. I intend to give the horse one final coat of Estapol tomorrow to put a hard surface on the horse. Should I apply that Estapol directly over the paint as is or should I give it all a light sand with, say, 400 grit sandpaper first to help adhesion of the Estapol? All advice gratefully received, thanks.

So there ya have it. Gracie Giraffe.

I am sure that she will get a ton of "love" from her imminent 1 1/2 year old owner. According to my son, however,,,

"The worst treatment might be that she's fought over and the horse will get lonely. It'll be temporary I'm sure."




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