Mother’s Day is for the Birds

She’s certainly not a woodworker, and she doesn’t do any DIY around the house, but she still reads my weekly columns. I enjoy it when she reads them, but it also means I can’t post any gift projects before the big day, as that would ruin the surprise.

A week ago, my kids and I were scratching our heads, trying to figure out what we could get my wife – their step-mom – for Mother’s Day. The other trouble my wife causes me is that she has everything one could need, making gift-purchasing maddening. Thankfully I’m a woodworker, so making something is always a good option.

Coincidentally, my wife mentioned an artist to me the other day. Charley Harper is an American artist who’s drawn many birds in his time. His work is pared down to simple colours and shapes, while bringing out the essence of his subject. I looked at some of his work with my kids and we decided we could probably do a pretty good job at scroll sawing one of them and mounting it on a small backer board, so it could be hung up.

To the shop!

My kids and I, along with my daughter’s boyfriend, headed to the shop. The plan was to build two pieces, one for my wife, one for my daughter’s boyfriend’s mom. We chose a Baltimore Oriole and he chose a Cardinal.

The first step was to draw them on paper, then transfer the design onto the wooden blanks, using carbon paper. I knew this process couldn’t take more than two hours, or focus would wane, so I had the wooden blanks prepared already. The Baltimore Oriole made it to the scroll saw first, as my daughter helped her boyfriend with the Cardinal design. By the time my son was finished sawing the parts out, the other two were ready for start cutting.

Spray painting the small parts would mean I’d have to go drop about $60 on a few different colours. Using a brush with some paints would also not be free. I also knew both approaches would take time and likely draw out the process to need a second trip to the shop, which I knew would draw things out too much.

Sharp thinking

We have about 300 pencil crayons, but they aren’t as bold as I wanted. Then I realized we have a set of about 30 Sharpie markers, which would more than likely do the job. I brought them with us so we could first test them out and then (hopefully) use them to add colour to these bold artworks. To test out the markers, I cut a few small pieces on the bandsaw and added colour to their faces. Worked great. I was worried the colour wouldn’t go on evenly, or that it would bleed a lot. Neither of these turned out to be problems. My son started adding black and orange to the oriole parts, creating the beautiful bird piece-by-piece. When he was done, the next pair were ready for colour, so they got to it.

In the meantime, my son and I started to bring the puzzle of small parts together on the backer board with glue. Once all the pieces were together, the piece nearly jumped off the page with energy and colour. This was certainly turning out to be a successful shop project.

Next, the Cardinal was ready to be assembled, which went well. Side-by-side the pair of avian beauties seemed like they were going to fly out to our backyard, which has the best supply of bird food in the area.

On Mother’s Day they were both appreciated by their respective recipients, marking yet another good gift to come out of my shop. I’m always glad to get kids into the shop.