We occasionally tour through the annual Festival of Trees and most of the trees are decorated with a theme such as Way Too Much White Stuff, What's With The Doors?, etc. One of them this year was done by the Woodworker's Guild and of course featured wooden decorations. My tour companions both said "Russ,
you should make wooden ornaments". Having had several satisfied "customers" for some
turned tree decorations, I thought "Hmmm...maybe they're on to something".
Mind you, it was getting pretty late in December by this time but I've noticed a certain regularity to the whole Christmas season phenomenon so I figured that if I started right away fuelled by the current infusion of Christmas Spirit, there should be no problem catching the next cycle. I will confess to largely replicating existing designs but as they say, the selections are "carefully curated".
Since I ended up making a variety of ornaments, the
detail page got a bit out of hand but heck, data is cheap.
Update, March 2026: I managed to make just one more type of ornament before moving on to other things. It has a sort of spiral motif as seen in the lower two photos. It's a neat little shape and like the other ornaments was just based on photos I'd seen. It takes only a relatively simple four holes to produce what looks like a fairly complex spiral shape although it does require a scroll saw to make efficiently. Now I've had a scroll saw for decades but it gets used very infrequently since they are the worst power tool ever. My model has the bonus of being particularly un-user-friendly. However I
gritted my teeth and powered through just bought a shiny new one that was way less frustrating.
| Material: | African Blackwood, Amboyna Burl, Aspen, Aromatic Cedar, Birch, Box Elder Burl, Cedar, Cherry, Cocobolo, Figured Maple, Mahogany, Manitoba Maple, Ornamental Crab, Padauk, Purpleheart, Redwood, Roasted Curly Maple, Santos Rosewood, Spruce, Thermally Modified Poplar, Walnut, Wenge, Various unknown woods |
| Finish: | 2 coats of Minwax Wipe-On Poly, Clear Satin |
| Size: | Typically 3" high (4.5" for spirals) |
| Done: | February 6, 2026 & March 9, 2026 |
