My first efforts in Woodworking

[ArieBoom]

Hi everybody.

My name is Arie Boom, 
and in this post I like to show some of my first efforst in woodworking.

I have alway's liked wood, but never really got a chance to dive into it.
It's actually quite interesting when you think about it.

I was born and raised in The Netherlands, 
aka Holland, and moves to the U.S. in 2010.

The word Holland derives from German - Holz Land ( meaning Wood Land )

Americans always say that I have the coolest last name ever; Boom.
What they don't know is that Boom translated into English is Tree.

You could say that I am Arie Tree, coming from Wood Land.
No wonder I am fascinated by wood.

Last year in January I decided to buy a scrollsaw.
Years ago I had played around for a few day's with a very old one, 
which I had borrowed from a co-worker.

I was immidiatly hooked to the technique, 
but it took a few years before I finally had the time to buy AND use it.

So now I had a saw, but what am I going to do with it?
I hopped online and saw a lot of cool designs.

I decided to go for an Elephant Puzzle box.
Friends called me crazy for trying, 
but I always feel that it is better to start with diffecult stuff, 
and besides that; I couldn't see myself sitting for hours practising straight cuts or circles.

 (some pics are not that great, they were taken with my phone)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It wasn't that bad actually, and once I had glued on the backpiece,
it really looked like a box.

I showed it to some co-workers and they all where thrilled.
My daytime job is in the restaurant business, 
meaning that I work with a lot of people who are from South America.

I wondered why they all wanted to have one, 
and they explained that Elephants are good luck.

They all wanted to buy one, and asked if I had more Elephants.
Like we all know; Google is our friend and found another Elephant puzzle.

One of my hostesses has a boyfriend who was amost graduating Penn State.
"Could you make me a cool Valentine gift?" she asked.
"Something with the nittany Lion."

"The what?" I asked, 
remember I am not an American, and no nothing about college mascot's.

She showed me a picture and I said that it would look great on a plaque.
"Cool," she said, "make me one."

I bought an oval wooden plaque with some bark around it at Michael's,
cut out the lion and then it was time to paint.

OMG, that was a P**N in the A**

I couldn't find any "real" paint in that color, 
and ended up with acryllic.

*Mental note to self; Acrylic paint s***s."

But at the end it didn't came out so bad, 
and she loved it.

We were now approaching Easter time, 
and my wife asked if I could make her a bunny.

Knowing my wife, I kinda figured to make a few more.
If she would like them, she would be handing them out like candy.

I wanted to do something on the inside and came up with some nice idea's.
Because this was all for easter, it also meant that they had to be painted.

OH NO!!!! more acryllic.
I swore like an old sailor, 
even thought about painting on my wall a big warning' ACRYLLIC FREE HOUSE.

But the Misses did got what she wanted.
(don't they always? how do they do that?)

Now this turned out to be a success.
I made so many bunnies that I don't want to see a bunny in my life.

They even turned up at the restaurant.

One thing let to another, 
and I experimented a lot to see what I can do.
Here are some random pics of things I made.

 

This year for christmas, my stepdaughter gave me a woodburning tool.Earlier this week I finally had some time to fool around with that thing.

You can see a lot of little mistakes, but it was just a test piece.I'm sure it will get better in the future.

 

Thank's for watching.

 

[Chuklz]

I lived in Antwerpen, Belgium for 4 years from 2009-13, took a few trips through the Netherlands.  The family loved our time over there. 

The elephants look pretty awesome, i could see why your coworkers would love them.  You're quite the artist. 

[new2woodwrk]

Very nice scroll work - thanks for sharing!

[ArieBoom]

Thank you Chucklz  and New2woodwrk for those nice comments.

Within a few days I am going to start my first real big project. It's going to be a 30x30 inch wall-art-object-thingy :-)

I will keep you updated and take some real pictures.

[new2woodwrk]

14 hours ago, ArieBoom said:

Thank you Chucklz  and New2woodwrk for those nice comments.

Within a few days I am going to start my first real big project. It's going to be a 30x30 inch wall-art-object-thingy :-)

I will keep you updated and take some real pictures.

Sweet can't wait to see it and the progress

[Chet]

14 hours ago, ArieBoom said:

Within a few days I am going to start my first real big project. It's going to be a 30x30 inch wall-art-object-thingy :-)

I will keep you updated and take some real pictures.

Feel free to post pictures as you go on you next project in the "project Journal" section

Thats some nice work you posted above.  Welcome to the forum.

[Stew]

Arie, that is some very nice work. It makes me want to get my scroll saw out, lol. What kind of scroll saw do you have? I have a skil brand, I have used it a few times and I don't know if it performs as well as a more expensive one. I guess a skilled and experienced person could do a lot with it .

[ClassAct]

I showed my wife and she liked them too. We like that they're artistic without going over the line into cutesy. Tasteful, artistic, well-crafted. Great work, Arie!

[ArieBoom]

Thanks Chet

Keep in mind though that I am still learning the ropes.

@ Stew

I have the Delta 20 inch Variable Speed Scroll Saw.
From what I have read online, this was a joint effort from Delta and Dewalt,
to create a new kind of saw.

It has a liftable arm, which makes it so much easier (and faster)
to change from one inside cut to the other.

All you do is untightened the blade at the top,
lift the arm,
slide your product over the blade,
lower the arm,
tighten the screw, and you're good to go.

@ ClassAct

thank you so much.
I assume you're talking about the Elephants?

Currently I am "stepping" it up a bit.
The ones on the pictures are just birch ply.

Now I am making some which are made out of Maple and Walnut.