cat puzzles

When I cut my fretwork ornaments, I had so much fun that I decided I wanted to cut more wood. Plus, I saw some fun projects in the scroll saw magazines which I wanted to try. So, I located a couple of boards I had purchased years ago, put a new blade on my saw, and had more fun.



I will be giving these kitties to my parents for Christmas. They really don't need more dust-collectors in their small retirement apartment, but I do think they need some cats. Plus Mom seems to really like my scroll-saw work. (She leaves my scroll-sawed ornaments out all year long!)

Here are the cats, assembled into a puzzle.



I made two puzzles, by stacking an oak board on top of a poplar board, and cutting both puzzles at once. This way, the cats would be different textures. I also used 3 kinds of stain to make the cats look different. Half the cats were stained with Cherry stain, and half were stained with Fruitwood stain. There was not a noticeable difference between the stain colors on the oak pieces, so I over-stained the fruitwood-stained oak pieces with a Red Mahogany stain marker.



Red cats, brown cats, yellow cats, and tan cats.

I sanded the cats carefully so that the fronts and the backs of the puzzle pieces looked the same.

Here are the two puzzles. We are keeping the set that is lying down in the picture.

Ornaments

I have been playing with my scroll saw.

I created this year's ornaments, and have almost completed next year's ornaments.

Here are this year's ornaments. They are made of Kiaat wood. I must say, this has been my most favorite wood to cut. It cut easily and while I was working with the wood, it gave off a mild aroma, kind of like incense.



Here are the almost-done ornaments for next year. They are made from Narra wood. It is similar to Kiaat, but I didn't notice an aroma while cutting it, although it is supposed to have an aroma too. I do not intend to 'finish' these until January 2010, since I signed and dated the 2010 ornaments with the year 2010. Not only do I want the date to be the year I give the ornaments, but also the year I make the ornaments. To keep the ornaments from being 'finished' this year, I will wait to add the hanging threads until the next calendar year.



Here is one 2009 and one 2010 ornament, alongside a quarter, for scale.




Last year, I posted pictures of the ornaments I created last year, along with pictures of ones from previous years.

2001, 2002, 2003, 2004's ornaments can be found here.
2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008's ornaments can be found here.