[SinglePic not found]    Turning the tagua nuts was easy enough.  They turn very easily, but will burn quickly if you aren’t careful.  Do not part them off of the bases until you have turned both of them.  If your second one is smaller than the first, your only option is to turn the first a little more.  I even left them on their bases to apply spray lacquer.  While turning, stop frequently and look for more voids in the nuts.  I had to apply CA glue a few times to each nut while turning.  A few drops then hit it with accelerator is all it takes, but if you don’t apply CA, you run the risk of the whole thing blowing up and flying off of the lathe.  Before parting it off, I used a drill chuck to make the hole for the wires.  I didn’t have a drill bit small enough, so I carefully drilled through the top with a needle in the chuck.  CA glue holds the wire loops into the top of the earrings.  Most importantly, mom likes them.   The idea to turn this came from a magazine where someone turned a Christmas tree ornament the same way.

[SinglePic not found]    I chose to insert a Sacagawea dollar that my daughter found in my change jar into the stopper.  Whereas the design itself is rather plain this time, I believe that the figure of the red malle burl combined with the insert gives it some character.

The globe style ornaments are the most complex of the ones shown because they are turned in 3 parts, and the globe itself needs to be hollowed a bit in order to make the ornament light enough to hang on a tree.  The top and bottom need to be undercut a little for a snug fit, as well. 

The snowmen use some puff-paint for the nose, buttons, and eyes, and using a 2nd type of wood for the hat gives them some character.  They are fairly easy to turn, but you need to remember to flatten the top of the head so that the hat will sit correctly.

The Christmas trees are simple projects that only require a parting tool, roughing gouge, and spindle gouge in order to turn.  Your smallest drill bit can be used to get a hole started for the eye screw used to hang the ornaments.

The two disks and the braces are cut from a pre-sanded laminated (pine, I think) board from Lowe’s, and the column is poplar.  Weather-stripping is used to grip the rods, and felt circles are inset into the base (I didn’t have any cork).  The column is actually larger than my lathe will handle, so I turned it in two pieces and glued it together with a dowel in the center for added strength.  The top disk has a 2″ (or so) hole cut in the center and sits on a tenon with the top of the column flush with the tabletop.  This gives the top some stability.  The turning on the very top hides this connection, and is held in place with glue and another dowel.  (That turning is supposed to look like a bobber, although I’m not sure how successful I was!)  The top is stained and then protected with a ‘bar top’ finish, which allowed me to embed the fishhooks seen between the rod slots.  The column is screwed into the base from below, as well as held in place by the braces.  The whole thing sits atop a lazy susan mechanism.  Click for a full-sized pic.