Our Amish friends own a wood shop where they make gorgeous furniture. Everything from serving trays to desks to dressers. They are able to take raw boards and produce stunning masterpieces.
The younger boys help out in the shop by doing small things. Thy make drawers, glue boards together, etc... But they also like to work on little projects of their own with the scraps of wood that thier father and older brother don't use.
The book above is kind of like a sewing pattern. They traced the squirrel on regular school lined paper, cut out the shapes, and then traced the shapes onto their scrap of wood.
This large jigsaw is used to cut the squirrel out. The sharp blade goes up and down and all the boys have to do is maneuver the piece of wood through the blade and keep their fingers of the way. Did you ever wonder why they're called jigsaw puzzles? It's because they're all cut out with jigsaws like this one.
A smaller jigsaw is used to cut the pieces out because it lets the craftsman be more detailed. My brother has started working in this shop off and on and really enjoys it ... almost as much as I love working in the bakery.
Now every piece is sanded. This sander is powered through gas and beats a sandpaper block any day of the week. In fact, the trick is not to sand it too much because then the pieces won't be nice and snug. The tale on this squirrel got sanded a little too much and will barely stay on ... you can see it in the second to last picture.
Now the boys are going to use some leftover varnish to complete their squirrel, but I won't be here to take pictures of that process. I'm headed for College in Idaho.
Gotta love being with friends and family . There's nothing like it in the world ...I Love You All!
