A Colossal Coastal Project

I haven't posted anything new in a little while. Things have been moving at a snail's pace for me as of late. So I thought I would show you all what I have been working on, slowly but surely.
My Mom likes lighthouses. She lives in another state. I know I'll be seeing her soon and wanted to make her something. I was looking at some of my favorite websites for patterns for a lighthouse portrait to cut when I came across this project. It is called "The Coast" coffee table. You can see or order the plans here at Scroller.
I am making a couple of changes to the project. My Mom and Dad will be visiting in a car and I have to make sure it will be able to be placed in their back seat to make the long trip back to their home. I done the most time consuming part of the coffee table first, making the multi-layered top. The top will be built in layers which will be visible under glass. This will allow the glass to serve as a flat top while showing a 3D appearing coastal scene under it. I guess it is easier to show than explain. So here it is.
The first layer is just a flat piece of wood that I have stained blue with Minwax tinted water based stain. To make sure this stays flat to be a good base for the top, I glued and nailed firring strips on the bottom.
The next layer is made of cottonwood and pine. It includes the light house sitting on cliffs with the sun, clouds, sun and ripples on the water.

Then the next layer is the cliffs in the foreground, a tree, a sail boat, and some of the birds. This layer is cottonwood, pine, and mahogany.
The top layer consists of the rest of the birds, and the posts in front of the foregrounds cliffs. This layer is made of mahogany, oak and cottonwood.

After the top layer is done, a ridge has to built up all the way around to support the wood that will go on top of all this that the glass will sit on.

So this is what my little bit of shop time has been spent on as of late. I will be back to show you the finished coffee table when I can get it done. I hope you all enjoyed the preview.

Unicorn Portait

This is another Charles Dearing design. It is cut in plywood and framed in custom made mahogany frames. Each one measure twenty two inches wide and twenty five inches tall in its frame.

Violin Trinket Box

It's been rough going as of late. I think my last project kind of got me down. While I had a ball building and testing the Rubber Band Gatling Gun, there was so much standing upright in one spot with the build and the testing phase of it, that I'm blaming that for my recent pain. I know the weather is changing too this time of year, but I don't want to think about that at the moment. So I'll blame it on the project if you don't mind.

I was going nuts without my daily dose of sawdust though, so on to my newest project.

I wanted something to do that would allow me to take it easy on my back. I chose this out of an issue of Scrollsaw Woodworking & Crafts. It is on page fifty six of the Fall 2011 issue.

This one is not one I would recommend for someone to build if they're have intentions of selling their work. It took me a little over five hours to build it and the last photo shows how small it is. I don't think anyone would actually pay enough for this piece to justify five hours of work. It is a nice little box though. I gave this one to my wife.

The box and top is made out of mahogany. The neck and bridge is made out of walnut. I finished it all with Watco Danish Oil. Looking at it now, I don't think I actually like the green strings, but that was the only wire I had around the shop small enough to serve this purpose at the moment that I needed it.