Ideas For Christmas Gifts Time. Lidded Boxes Maybe?

honey dippers egg cups magic wands change dishes pens key chains flashlights laser pointers napkin rings candle sticks tea lite holders ring holders hair pins chop sticks worry beads coasters butt plugs?

mac

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Butt Plugs?

I would think removing splinters would be a good idea with that gift too.

Sure , Just don't sand them after you turn them. And if they have some tearout all the better

Mushrooms . Green Chestnut and Pine, kiln dried Teak and Mahogany . Lots of Mushrooms - so they`re all gettin em for Christmas > !!

From an earlier post on "the scraps".. someone said that's what the hanging ornaments looked like..

mac

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Mom does craft shows in the Vancouver area and garden dibblers are selling like crazy. I just shipped her another 40 for a show this weekend. I turn them from free/found wood and use wire to burn inch marks and some decoration into them.

The batch I shipped were made from cedar and some free hardwood (Mayday). They'll sell for $6 to $10 each, but they only take about 10 minutes each to do with a roughing gouge, a skew, and some shellac on a rag.

Pens, bowls and lidded boxes are moving as well, but dibblers are flying...

Well, my mom is getting a cabinet that will hide their garbage can, per her request. My dad is getting a knife, as he got all bug-eyed and drooled a little when I showed him the last one I made. The wife is tired of me making stuff, so she's just getting a gift card.

But, none of those are turning. In past years, I've given plenty of bowls as gifts, obviously enough for anyone with a lathe, and snowmen as well.

The snowmen might appeal to you- I don't have any pictures, but I make them out of basswood, turning a tophat with a band and brim, one smallish bead and one large bead all in one go, and then turning little cones for the noses to be drilled and glued in later. They look a little abstract like that, so I then use "pickled white" stain on the body and head, and paint the hat and band, as well as a face. I suppose you could paint everything, but the pickled white makes them look kind of old-fashioned.

I decided, as a personal preference when doing them, to make every one different on purpose. Not only is that more interesting, but it makes the gift a set of unique pieces of art, rather than an apparently semi mass-produced product.

If you put some eyehooks on the top and add a loop of ribbon, then put about four of them in a box with some tissue paper, I've found that they're a big hit. A guy could use nicer or fancier wood than basswood, but I actually think they're more appreciated with the paint, and it's an easy paintjob to do (a snowman's eyes are just lumps of coal, after all!)

I've also got some that I bought, not made, that would be an interesting turning/carving job. Snowmen icicles- those are the same as described above, but the body is a straight conical icicle rather than a big bead. Those ones have arms carved into the sides, and I think they're fairly neccesary for it to look right.

If you're really ambitious, I'd also point out that a lot of the traditional nutcrackers seem to be assembled from turned parts as well. With a little glue, and some fairly simple carving, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to make one of those.

just to hook on to the end of your post, I'm doing a new (to me) twist on gift pens this year..

I've sold several "classic" pens this year and later ordered initials for them.. I've ordered initials for all of the gift pens that I'm giving this year, I think it's a nice "personalized" touch.. For $3 a pen the folks know that it was made for THEM... Since this is our first real Christmas in Mexico, I'm giving mostly pens and perfume atomizers because they're easy to mail..

mac

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How about coffee mugs? American Woodturner Magazine (AAW) has an article on some exotic staved turnings of coffee mugs. Inserts are available from

or Brodie