Descending Ashtray

Here is the new flower that I have been working on.

It is easier for me to explain using pictures.  First of all, start off with a circle and make a perfect pentagon.  Then make a triangle that connects to the center point of the pentagon.  Make another triangle however long or short you want the point of your star to be.  Now trace the entire arm of the star on a piece of wood and cut it out with a bandsaw or scroll saw.  I personally rough cut it and then sanded down to the line with my 12″ disc sander. 

 Once you have a perfect template made, use it to make the other 4 points of the star.  To get the added dimensional look, I sanded each of the points to have a ridge running down the center of each one.  But this is optional, I am sure there is a way to do it on the table saw so you don’t have to risk sanding the tips of your fingers.  Then I just glued all of the arms of the star together and added a back support to make it easier to hang.

Today is Brandy’s Birthday and for her birthday I set up a scavenger hunt.  She is a good detective and loves to figure things out.  So I thought it would be just the thing to make her day fun. 

There were eight clues that she had to follow, the first one starting at her car when she got off of work.  The rest led her to a coffee shop, a neighbors house and then there were more back at home.  With each clue there was pair of wood earings that I made for her and then with the final clue, she found this wooden tree to hang them all on.  The star below was also one of the things she had to find.  It is now sitting on top of the Christmas Tree.

Here is the orchid that I have been working on.  It took 7 hours of pretty labor intensive work to get it done.  I just realized that this is the 200th post!

Here some new lilies that I have been working on for a gallery here in Des Moines.  I wanted to get these standard flowers out of the way so that I could start working on some that will be new and different.  Stay tuned, it is going to be a busy weekend in the shop!

Here is the display stand.  The bottom circle is 4ft in diameter and the cupboard underneath is for additional storage.