Well, here is a bit of an explanation, and photos of what I've been making since August this year. Some of you saw samples of these in my space at the Klingspore Extravaganza.
The first photo shows less than half of the small ornaments that I've been making. These start out as a 1" X 1" X about 4" block of wood. I cut from 2 sides to produce the compound cut you see here. When complete, you remove the waste pieces to reveal a beautiful ornament. More wood is wasted than is kept as an ornament when making these. I have made almost 70 of this size in various styles, but have already sent many of them to relatives as presents. Each of these ornaments takes about an hour to cut, but a few take longer because of the very fine detail and the need for high accuracy in them. I used a #1R Flying Dutchman blade to cut them on my DeWalt 788 saw.
The second photo shows a sample of the four sizes of 3D reindeer that I've been making. I've been making these and giving them away every Christmas Season for the past five years and this is year six. Every woman cashier, sales girl, waitress, nurse, etc. who helps me during the Christmas Shopping Season gets one if they want it. Every little girl who seems old enough (8+ yrs) also gets one. I usually hold out my right hand palm down with a reindeer in my palm, wish them a Merry Christmas, and drop the reindeer into their hand. I enjoy putting the smile on their faces. 98% of the time it brings forth a wide bright smile and shows them that I appreciate what they did for me. Making and giving them away makes me happy and more into the Christmas Spirit too, so I keep doing it. Last year I made and gave away 91 of the largest size, which is only about 3" tall. This year I've been making the other three sizes as well, but usually only giving the largest size away because they are easier and faster to make. It usually takes me about 8 minutes to cut one this size. I then use marking pens to make small black eye dots and a big red nose on them.
Back when I first started making reindeer I would use a Dremel to round the corners and make them look more correct, but this took me a lot of additional time. Then I realized that most who received them were just as happy with them right off the scroll saw, so that's as far as I go with them now, except to occasionally remove loose fringe left from the saw cutting.
The smallest reindeer that I make is only 1" tall, and I'm making hanging type earrings from them by drilling a tiny hole just under their antlers and attaching them via a ring large enough to clear the antlers to the ear piece.
I've made 337 of the largest reindeer so far this year and have given about 230 of them away so far, so I'll likely make more before Christmas. I've only made a few of the middle sizes, but have made 53 of the smallest ones. So far, only 2 sets of earrings have been put together. I'm waiting for additional gold and silver earring hardware to put more of them together. They will also be given away, but as Christmas Presents. My 17 yo grandaughter and my daughter-in-law (her mom) received the first two sets of earrings
on Thanksgiving and seemed very excited about them.
In the third picture you can see some of the larger ornaments that I've been making. These were stack cut flat and then the two pieces put together with glue. Since August I've made about 60 (I lost count) and many of these are also on their way to relatives. They are 6-8" tall and 2-4" wide (ruler scale didn't make it into the photo)
The forth photo gives a better idea how tiny my smallest reindeer are. I make all of the larger size reindeer from pine, but I had to switch to poplar to make these. The pine wouldn't reliably hold together and some reindeer fell apart before I even finished cutting them. The legs of these tiny 1" tall reindeer are so small that their 2 front legs are about the size of the small end of the standard flat tooth picks. I also cut these with the #1R Flying Dutchman blades, but more slowly and carefully.
I was able to make all of these much easier after I installed the two LED lamps on my scroll saw. They actually made doing all of this a pleasure.
Charley
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