Homemade Gin – Day 2
Apr 05
Here’s a quick update to my Homemade Gin adventure.
Added the Botanical Blend from the kit tonight.
Now I wait.
According to the instructions after 12 hours, I’ll have Gin.
Stay tuned!
—–Brandon
Homemade Gin – Day 1
Apr 04
Broke out my Homemade Gin kit I got for Christmas.
Never had Gin and am looking forward to trying it.
This cool kit makes it crazy easy.
Added the Juniper Berries to the 750 ml bottle of Vodka tonight.
This will sit for 24 hours, then I’ll add the Botanical Blend to it.
Stay tuned!
—– Brandon
A rare piece…
Mar 14
Here is a rare Swiss piece I was lucky to find on Ebay back in December of 2013.
As you can see it had some extensive damage. Most of the base was missing and it had a hole drilled in the top of the head. It also had some damage on the face, especially the nose.
I wanted to have the piece fully restored for my wife’s birthday at the end of February. Unfortunately the weather here in Ohio did not cooperate and I had to give it to her partially finished.
The weather has finally broke a little and I was able to get it done this week. Missy is very happy with it and it is going in our private collection.
Be sure to click on the pictures for a bigger view:
Thanks for looking,
—– Brandon
An Addendum
Feb 21
It’s official, the Addendum to The Art & Character of Nutcrackers is available for purchase from the Leavenworth Nutcracker Museum:
Click here to buy the Addendum to The Art & Character of Nutcrackers
Be sure to look for my original pieces featured on pages 106 and 110.
There’s also mention of me on page 5 for the repair work I did on a 16th century French piece for the museum a few years ago. Unfortunately, the publisher misspelled my name as “Benard Etto”. So here’s a link to the repair work that proves it’s me:
Also if you don’t yet already have Arlene’s first book (The Art & Character of Nutcrackers) it’s available in the store as well.
I actually own 2 copies of each of these books. One is kept pristine while the other is used as reference. That way I don’t get all worried about having to take it out to the shop if I need to.
Arlene Wagner’s first book was a key element in getting me started in creating and repairing nutcrackers. Having my work featured in her new book is a huge honor for me. So if you get the chance, be sure to pick up a copy (or two). It’s a great book and a must have for any collector.
—- Brandon
Wings, wings, and more wings
Feb 01It’s been a really cold and snowy weekend over here in Ohio.
It’s perfect weather to hunker down, fire up the heaters in the shop, and carve carve carve!
My wife and I team up to make what we call “Batwing Clocks”. I carve and attach bat wings to a traditional mantle clock, then my wife paints them in Halloween and Disney Haunted Mansion themes.
Here are a couple pictures of what goes into making these:
Bat wing drawn on Basswood and ready to be carved.
My creative clamping technique. Lots of rubber bands.
The wings are doweled and glued permanently in place. Gorilla glue foams as it dries.
My busy carving bench with more wings in process and other projects lying around.
Here are links to some of the clocks Missy has sold previously and one available now for purchase:
Haunted Mansion Themed Batwing Clock
Halloween Themed Batwing Clock
Halloween Moon and Owl Batwing Clock (avalable)
As always, thanks for looking!
—– Brandon
Santa?…..Gnome?
Jan 25Here’s another great figural nutcracker I picked up that I gave to my wife for Christmas.
These seem to get classified as a gnome and sometimes as Santa. Since this one was a Christmas gift, it’s a Santa in our house. 🙂
As you can see in the photos, he had some condition issues. The most obvious was a chunk missing from the bottom of his beard. He also had some small chips here and there, but was generally in really good shape.
The restoration went very well and the new finish really shows off the carved details.
Before
After
Thanks for looking.
Stay tuned, more great pieces are on the way!
—– Brandon
Argh! There be Pirates…
Jan 17Here’s a great example of a figural Pirate nutcracker.
Picked him up on Ebay. He had some condition issues (chipped lip, chipped handle, and various dings in the face). Looks like he was dropped or the family dog got to it and carried it around in its mouth a little.
I originally bought this one to fix up and sell, but the wife fell in love with it after it was done so looks like he’s going in our collection. Oh darn! 🙂
I really do like how this one came out. The darker stain really makes this a better piece.
See the before and after photos below:
Before
Before Repairs – Close up of the face
Before Repairs – Right side showing handle damage
Before Repairs – Left Side
After
Stay tuned, more great pieces to come!
—– Brandon
Gone to the Dogs
Jan 10
Hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Years!
We had a great Christmas and I have big plans for 2015. Not spoiling the surprise or cursing myself by letting the cat out of the bag too soon. though. So you’ll have to stay tuned as things progress. 🙂
In the meantime, here’s a great piece we just added to our personal collection. We bought this piece some time ago off of ebay. We got it pretty reasonable because it was damaged.
I was fortunate recently to have time to concentrate on fixing its ears, put a new finish on it, and make a custom base for it. See my previous Blog post “It’s all about the base” to see how the base was made. Since I was able to secretly get everything done before Christmas, I wrapped it and surprised Missy by adding it to her pile of Christmas gifts this year.
As always, be sure to click on the photos for a larger up close view of them.
Ebay has been good to me lately, so stay tuned for more great pieces!
—– Brandon