Walnut and Cherry Desk Clock

I, affectionately, refer to this walnut and cherry desk clock as "the little, one-eyed alien clock." :-) My wife thinks it looks like Kenny from South Park. Maybe I should call it "Kenny surfing."

The design was an experimental one and actually took a lot more work than I planned so I don't anticipate making another one. The problem was all of the sanding angles. To really bring out the quality of the grain a piece of fine woodworking needs to be sanded all the way to superfine. Because of the way the walnut and cherry fit together, as well as the shapes of both woods it made sanding a challenge.

But the end result I think looks sharp. I tried to bring a lot of curve into the shapes.

This is a great little desk clock, shelf clock or table clock. It's just under 6 inches wide by 4 1/2 inches tall and 1 3/4 inches deep. The clock itself is about 1 1/2 inches in diameter.

The clock is made from Michigan air-dried walnut and cherry woods and was finished with 2 coats of tung oil, which really brings out the rich grain patterns on both the walnut and cherry.

The walnut and cherry desk clock is for sale on my site.

Walnut Bandsaw Box Desk Organizer

I love the rich grain detail in this Walnut Desk Organizer!

I'm proud to say that this walnut stock is air-dried Michigan walnut. It came from a farm in the Jackson Michigan area. By the way, the cherry drawer pulls came from the same farm.

I wanted this piece to be practical; something that both looked beautiful but was also highly functional. I designed it with the front extension to hold a pen, business cards and paper clips. Plus it has the 3 drawers for storage, the largest one can hold a post-it note pad. I also added the brass clock into it because, like I said, I want it to be functional.

It stands 6 1/2 inches tall, is 11 1/2 inches across and about 8 inches at it's deepest point. The clock is 2 inches in diameter.

This box was hand finished with 2 coats of tung oil to bring out the rich grain of the walnut and then given a final finish coat of paste wax to protect the finish and give the desk organizer a deep luster. There is no stain used. This is the natural grain of the wood brought out by the tung oil.

In fact, while I'm mentioning finishes this is a good time to talk a little about finishing. Does it take extra time to give a piece a good finish? Yes. A good, quality finish can often take nearly as much time as creating the piece in the first place. Does it make a difference? Hell yes!

If you are thinking about buying a piece of wood art, make sure that the craftsman actually finished the piece on all sides, not just the front face. Sure it's a big time saver and it allows them to sell their work cheaper, BUT (and this is a big but) if wood isn't finished evenly all the way around it will crack, split, warp and all in all just not last.

Here is another shot of the desk organizer. Want to see more pictures of this, or interested in buying it? Take a look at this walnut desk organizer on my website.

Robert's Workshop.com website now up and running

My website is now running. robertsworkshop.com

I have a gallery featuring past work as well as a gallery of current projects for sale. The site features ecommerce through Paypal as well so if you see something you like you can purchase it directly.

I have a bunch of new pieces available so let's take a look at one of them - Hand Carved Leather Bracers

After making the leather shield I decided I wanted to make some other pieces of armor in a similar fashion to accompany it. The first is the Bracers of the Lion Heart, hand carved leather bracers.

These bracers have extensive Celtic knot work as well as a pair of Celtic lions on each bracer. They are 8" inches in length, which on me runs from the wrist to an inch or so short of the elbow. As you can see in the bottom picture the bracers lace up from the underside easily adjusting for different arm thicknesses. The inside of the bracers is lined with buck-skin suede for greatly added comfort.

All good pieces of armor have a legend attached to them and the Bracers of the Lion Heart are no different.

Legend has it these bracers belonged to Brunwold, the moderately apt, an infamous warrior/wizard who was best known for his great battle with Groshgnast, the hideous (even by troll standards Groshgnast was seriously ugly).

Brunwold was amongst the rare breed of warrior/wizards. Unfortunately the reason there are so few warrior/wizards out there is that at times of great stress, such as the heat of battle, one must have their instincts trained to react specifically. Warriors, for example, instinctively draw their sword, while wizards prepare to cast a spell. Warrior/wizards being trained equally, unless they are truly great (such as Gandalf the Grey), hesitate while trying to decide how to react. Such is the case with the former owner of the Bracers of the Lion Heart, Brunwold. Upon entering his final battle with a Spiny Humped Megaroach, which strikes terror into the hearts of all men, our hero, Brunwold, accidentally turned himself into an exceptional stained glass end table (see photo).

No longer having any need of his bracers, they have returned to me, the maker. Purchased just before Brunwold's last adventure and due to the unfortunate end table incident, these bracers have never been used in combat.

Despite the legend, the Bracers of the Lion Heart are said to give +2 to Charisma in most realms due to their extremely attractive and detailed leather carving work. :-)

These hand carved leather bracers are for sale on my site. Take a look :-)