I’m a firm believer that home made Christmas presents are always better than purchased ones. They’re usually less expensive for the buyer, but 100x more heartfelt. Plus you get the bonus of improving your craft!
I invested in a Shaper Origin about a year ago, and I’ve loved it, but I just haven’t used it nearly as much as I’d like, so I wanted to do projects using it.
The gift I chose for my mom was an Oak Trivet (thing to put hot pans on). The design was available on Shaper Hub and it required a jig to keep the piece aligned when it’s flipped over. Then it just took a lot of sanding, and deburring with a knife.
I designed the ruler in Inkscape, and traced a picture of the Thew steam shovel. I was planning on cutting out more than one unit, so my Dad could sell them to buy supplies, but it took 2(ish) hours to make just one. In hindsight, I’m thinking that I could make my painting easier if I cleaned up the top surface immediately after painting. Instead, I’d paint it, let it dry, and sand off the excess.
Finally I coated each piece with Linseed oil.
