Hendywood: Unique Rustic Handmade Jewelry
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Are Buttons Really that Complicated?

5/24/2015

2 Comments

 
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First, I try to decide what size buttons I want or need. Then, of course the hunt for the right branch gets underway. 

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Maybe I'll find the perfect branch in this stack of wood ...Yep, found it! The branch for these buttons was blown out of the tree by tropical storm Beryl, a recent visitor to our area.

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Using my band saw the branch is sliced into eight little pieces. Man-o-man, they look rough and that bark doesn't look very sturdy. Hmmm...

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The bark had to go and two of the slices did not pass my stress test. I tried to break each piece to make sure it was strong enough to be a button. These strong little guys will work :) (They feel a bit naked)

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The Dremel tool smoothed out the saw marks and the sander took care of the fine-tuning. It's tricky holding onto these little suckers while doing this.

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These buttons were so tiny, I used pliers to hold them in place while drilling two holes. I want to keep my fingers for another project.

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All surfaces were sanded several times until they were super-smooth. The edges were rounded a tad to soften them up. I included a pencil to help you see the size of these tinies.

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I applied wax and set them out to dry. Any extra wax will easily be buffed away.

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Finished branch buttons! 
These are the tiniest I've ever made, but little beauties. 
Complicated? You decide.

Find more buttons at Hendywood on Etsy.


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2 Comments

How Does it get from wood block to bowl?

5/12/2015

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I love to work with old, gnarly wood that I can reclaim or salvage. This piece was a pine plank taken from a very old house during a remodeling project. The wood was over 100 years old and, well, didn't look that pretty as you can see. 

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Oh, but the ugly was only skin deep. The beauty within was amazing. 

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After attaching the block of wood to my lathe and giving it a whirl (not to mention using a few cutting tools) an interesting little form began to emerge. The aroma of pine was strong and the sticky sap meant many stops to clean my tools.

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At the halfway point, the newly formed block was flipped over and
reattached to the lathe. More ugly...

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A little more turning and cutting - it finally started to look like a bowl.

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Not only was the grain beautiful in this old wood, but look closely and you can see the nail holes. Sweet!

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Done. A beautiful little bowl from reclaimed antique pine wood that was once destined for the trash heap. One's trash, another's treasure. 

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    Karen Henderson

    Wife, Mother, Grandmother, Teacher, Lover of Animals, Woodworker, Jewelry Designer, Owner of Hendywood.

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