My nephew and his wife are having their first child soon and asked if I would make something for the baby's room. I always wanted to make a cradle so I made him this one out of Cherry. This is my first time working with Cherry and I enjoyed working with it since it was new to me and I was pleased with how well it machines. I finished the cradle with Garnet Shellac. I am not a big fan of staining wood but had to stain the ends of the cradles' basket as the wood was so light in color that it did not match any of the other parts of the basket or the legs. I used General Finishes' "Candlelite" Gel Stain that I read about in Feb/Mar 2009 edition of American Woodworker article titled "Aged Cherry Finish" to try and match the basket ends to the rest of the cradle parts and it really worked out great....it was a very good article! The design is a combination of two designs, the basket design came out of a book of children's furniture and the leg design came from a picture I saw in an old Fine Woodworking magazine.
Regards,
Bill
Regards,
Bill