BeachBoy

A week or two ago, I posted pics of coasters I had made for my youngest daughter, who is a student at the University of North Carolina. The coasters had the letters N and C inlaid. My other daughter saw them and said she wanted a set as well. The only problem is that she graduated from Furman University. I didn't think that "F U" inlaid into the coasters would be appropriate, for obvious reasons. So I had to come up with a different design. Since my daughter is a fan of Celtic art, particularly the Celtic Tree of Life, I decided to go with that. I found a design by Roshaan Ganief. But that design was for a piece of wall art that was 12 inches in diameter. It was probably a crazy thing to do, but I decided to shrink that design down to a 3 inch diameter and inlay it into each coaster. There are 48 pieces in the design -- those 48 pieces had to fit into a 3-inch diameter circle. Obviously, some of the pieces were tiny. And multiply all that by 8 (6 coasters plus the two sides of the carrier), and you can see that I was dealing with a crazy number of those tiny pieces. I had to borrow my wife's tweezers to assemble the project. And I dropped a couple of the pieces. It was an adventure trying to find them in the sawdust on the floor of my shop. Nevertheless, despite the challenges, I think the final product turned out pretty good -- my daughter thinks so, anyway. The wood I used was Maple and Walnut. They were finished with polyurethane.

I love the bee idea. I've got a bunch of pests around my place that I'd like to encase in resin, too. But I guess that squirrel would make a mighty big bottle stopper.

Wow. I'm tired just looking. You are a better man than me. I'd have probably just hired somebody. Too much like work for this tired old body. But I admire anyone that can do it. I'm sure it will look great when finished. Good luck.

HaHa, Marg. We in North Carolina don't know what a Tarheel is either. Just like people in Indiana don't know what a Hoosier is. Our forefathers apparently invented language but forgot to write down what it was.

This the first time I've posted any of my work on this forum. It is probably not representative, since I don't usually do much inlay stuff. But this was a special project requested by my daughter. She is a student at UNC and is moving out of the dorms and into an apartment - her first one. She has spent the summer excitedly acquiring used furniture. Wanting to keep it nice, she requested a set of coasters. I made two -- one for her and one for her aunt, who is also an avid Tarheel fan. Here is how they came out.

Jim, I want your autograph! You are now officially a star. But not like those Kardashians. You're a star that actually has talent. Congratulations.

I love this one, Kevin. Who designed the pattern? Was it your original design?

Awe-inspiring!! What a great way to start off my day. Thanks, Kevin. Maybe you could scroll something like that. Then you'd be even more amazing than you already are.

An appropriate project to launch your comeback. I like it!

Whoa, man, for a couple minutes I thought I was back in the 60's with my lava lamp.

Too busy to scroll? Now that is a terrible condition. Ought to be a law against it.

I think Gandalf healed himself -- if a piece broke off, I certainly can't tell it. If you hadn't mentioned it, I would have never known. Well done on a challenging piece!

Welcome, Skeeter. I'm new to this forum too, but I don't have nearly the experience you do. Looking forward to learning a thing or three from you. Now let's talk about this relationship you have with a coffin builder. I am all in favor of barter relationships, but I don't think I would have chosen a coffin maker for fear of what he'd offer in return. Just sayin'...

Apparently that hand surgery was successful. You are really cranking out the projects -- much more prolific than me, and I don't have any excuse. Glad to see you are back at it.

Quite an ingenious repurposing project! You are a clever one, Kevin.