Holiday Projects & that Sinking Feeling

It’s been warm outside and there are still some tomatoes in my garden, so it’s been easy to stay in denial. But when I saw holiday stuff on display in a local mall I knew I was in trouble – those projects I meant to make as gifts might have to be given as Valentine’s presents, maybe even Fourth of July presents.

That sewing-machine-shaped inlay I have in mind for a box is still just a printed-out paper silhouette, and that picture frame exists only in my imagination. Now, my daughters are fashionistas of the first order, and my wife likes sewing, crafting and vintage things, so there’s no real need to make anyone anything – except we all get a kick out of giving something handmade.

I know some of you can cut a dovetail faster than I can read about how to do it, but I bet more than a few of you have some projects that might not be ready for the holidays. My fall-back project for gifts is simple – cutting boards. We cook a lot at my house, and a good wooden cutting board is both easier on the knives and more sanitary than plastic cutting boards. My wife and I pick up cutting boards at estate sales all the time, but a good cutting board can be made over a weekend, counting glue-up time.

I’ve been picking up some offcuts from our shop – some nice walnut from a project by Glen D. Huey you’ll read about in our November issue, and a couple of leftovers from when Alf Sharp was shooting a video here a few weeks back. So maybe it’ll be cutting boards for Christmas, and I’ll be sure to get that veneered, inlayed, perfectly-built box ready for a start-of-summer 2015 gift.

I may even get creative and try these round cutting boards Bob Lang wrote about in the Spring 2008 issue of Woodworking Magazine. 

–Mike Wallace

p.s. We now have back in stock the CD with issues 1-16 of Woodworking Magazine. Get your copy now!