I make a lot of ornaments for the December holiday markets in all different forms, including realistic designs and spindle pendants. The first ornaments that I ever made were acorn-shaped and how I came to name my shop. My acorn design is more stylized than real-life acorns, which is just a personal preference. They’re also not just for Christmas celebrators - I hang them on the doorknobs in my house as home decor.
Spindle pendants that don’t represent any real-life object are a deceptively tricky thing for me to design and fabricate. It’s an exercise in balancing how separate design elements relate to each other in one composition.Â
This year, for my pendant-style ornaments, I have a done a lot of sketching on the lathe, to various degrees of success.
Design elements that I like to work with are simple ball and cone forms. From that starting point, I place the ball toward the top and vary how spherical or squashed it should be. The cone can be long or short, and either straight-profiled or flared out. Lastly, the scale of each element, its distance from the other and connecting steps, beads or coves play a big role in the success of the overall piece. I don’t have any special formula, I just feel it out as I go. Unfortunately, sometimes I cut off too much wood before I have the relationship between the elements worked out.
Last year, my customers showed a lot of enthusiasm for my marbled ornaments, so I made another batch this year.
It’s a long process to make these marbled pieces, so I only make them in large batches once a year. The wood selection needs to be light-colored woods with little to no figure or grain to conflict with the marbling designs. They are then treated in chemical baths and fully dried before I can float the paints on a gel surface, swirl them around and dip each ornament to create the effect.
This year, I created end caps in walnut (not marbled) to frame each bulb. In some ornaments, blank areas were left from incomplete coverage of the marbling design, so, instead of sanding the whole thing down and trying again, I retouched in some lines to fill the spaces.
Another project I did this fall was partnering with heirloom egg producer The Chicks Next Door to bring you egg cups that complement Annie’s heirloom eggs.
As this year comes to a close, I’ll be cleaning up my shop, organizing my wood stash and planning projects to make in the new year. First on my list is going to be bud vases to celebrate the coming of Spring. See you in the new year!
Beautiful projects! Thanks for sharing.