Tag Archives: Woodworking

A Lamp for Aunt Cari

Hyrum has wanted to make a wood lamp for his Aunt Carolyn, who appreciates art and craft. We began by spray painting the rough roots of an old stump. But the wood was so cracked and rotten that we could not work with it without it crumbling into pieces. We worried that no matter how nice the lamp looked, one fall would destroy it.

To strengthen the wood, we painted it with two coats of diluted wood glue, which sealed all the cracks and breaks and made the old root a solid piece of lamp wood.

We painted the wood again to cover the creamy film of the dried wood glue. Most of our lamps are stained various shades of brown. But this lamp we spray painted a glossy black, giving the rustic wood a sleek and exotic look. “Exquisite” as my sister described it. She was thrilled with her new lamp, and we were thrilled with her happiness.

Hyrum has become an accomplished lamp maker, with an eye for the right wood pieces.

Wood Lamps

2 Replies

My children and I worked for months (and in the case of the featured lamps, years) to be ready for the Tooele Arts Festival, a gathering of more dozens of artists and crafters from around the American west, held June 14-16. I purchased a booth space to sell the family wares. This post highlights several wood lamps I made with my sons John, Caleb, and Hyrum. Displaying our art for three days was an intense and rewarding social experience as we interacted with many hundreds of people, not pushing for sales, but just being personable. We sold three lamps, five rag rugs crocheted by my mother, eight wood bird-beak back scratchers carved by Caleb, and two dozen papier mache floral jars made with my daughter Hannah and my sons, along with 40 copies of my book Rabbit Lane: Memoir of a Country Road. Making these lamps with my sons has been a meaningful father-son experience for me, and hopefully gave them a sense of creativity, beauty, and business. You can see our other lamps on the Woodcraft page of this blog.

Burl wood in Sedona red, by Caleb.

Burl wood in Provincial brown, by Caleb. (Sold $49.)

Cottonwood with larval etchings, by Hyrum.

Root stump, by Hyrum.

Forked branch, by Hyrum.

Slender branch, by Hyrum.

“Anchor” by Hyrum. (Sold $49.)

“Little Guy” by John.

Hyrum’s first lamp from 2014.

“Old Timer” by Dad (me). This one is on my night stand. (Made in 1993,)

“Stone” by Hyrum.

“Ripples” by Hyrum. (Sold $29.)

Wood Pens by Hyrum

2 Replies

Hyrum (15–one of the four Baker brothers) has become quite the woodworker, taking advanced wood-shop and furniture-making in high school. Today a good friend taught Hyrum to turn wood pens on a lathe. Hyrum started from 1×1 square scrap lumber rescued from the trash can: cedar heart; walnut; wormy maple. He drilled the correct diameter hole in the wood blank with a drill press.

After drilling, he glued and inserted the metal tube into the blank. When the glue cured, he “squared” the ends with a reamer, making the blank ends truly perpendicular to the blank length. With the preparations over, it was time to turn the wood on the lathe, transforming the square blank into a perfect round. Using a wood turning gouge and chisel, Hyrum slowly took off the corners of the square, taking the now-round wood blank down to the desired diameter and even with the bushings at either end.

The blank cut to the right size and shape, it was time to make it shine! First came the sandpaper: 150 grit; 400 grit; then 800 grit. Finally, steel wool.

Then Hyrum rubbed into the wood, turning at high speed, five coats of walnut oil mixed with wax.

The finished blank came alive and sparkled with natural beauty!

With the wood finished, it was ready to be assembled with the parts of the pen kit for the final pen product. Hyrum can’t wait to make more beautiful wood pens, and plans to show them soon on his new Etsy account.

Hyrum and I are very grateful to our friend, Paul, for teaching us a new skill.

For more Baker brothers woodcraft, see the Woodcraft page of this Blog and click on any link.

Wood Lamp: Hope

8 Replies

“Hope”

My friend and business associate Randy S. commissioned this lamp, affectionately named Hope, as a companion to our beautiful wood lamp Waves. Randy selected the wood for Hope from several photographs I sent him in October 2015, seen here from three different views.

Hyrum (15) and I worked slowly over the next year and a half to transform this rough piece of wood into the beautiful lamp featured above. The first step was, as always, to clean and smooth the wood. Next we drilled the small surface that would support the bulb socket, stained the wood with several coats of dark Provincial stain, and inserted the nipple pipe and socket.

Preparing the table-top base came next.

We mounted the lamp wood onto the base with wood glue and several three-inch screws, wired the lamp, varnished the base and lamp with gloss polyurethane, and caulked around the lamp base. We routed the base bottom to house the lamp chord.

The final step was to suspend the lamp upside down between two padded chairs and attach black felt to the bottom of the base.

Randy took the lamp to his home office to join Waves after nearly two years. He said it was worth the wait.

(Purchase Price: $500.)

Baker Brothers Lamps was founded to help my sons earn money for the 2013 and 2017 National Boy Scout Jamborees and to pay for their high school athletic activities and university studies. It has been so fun for me to work on this hobby with my sons, transforming rough wood into beautiful lamps.

Christmas Barn

10 Replies

Amidst all the holiday gift-giving, certain gifts stand, gifts of more than things but also of the heart. My son Hyrum’s gift to his sister Hannah was one such gift, a gift to always remember. Hyrum (14) conceived of the idea, drew the idea, and saved his money for the materials. Together we engineered the structure, bought the materials, and began construction. His gift: a miniature barn with hinged roof. This series of photographs shows each step of the construction process, culminating with Hannah (10) opening her gift on Christmas morning. I think of Hyrum’s gift as a miracle gift, for he gave part of himself along with the present.

The base frame, 18″ x 18″, allowing for a two-story central main building with an attached lean-to on each side.

Adding posts to support the main barn roof.

Completing the barn and lean-to frames.

The completed frame with the interior floor installed and the wall siding begun.

Wall siding and lean-to roofing completed with lathe. The roof frame sit, hinged, on the main barn structure.

The completed hinged roof frame atop the barn.

The completed barn, prior to painting.

Hyrum painting the barn.

And . . . the completed barn project.

Most importantly, Hannah on Christmas morning opening her special gift, inside which Hyrum placed a wrapped bucket of perfectly-sized farm animals.

Hannah’s Christmas barn became my favorite Christmas gift, too. I enjoyed working with my son for weeks to engineer, construct, paint, and wrap the barn. I witnessed the joy on my daughter’s face (and on Hyrum’s face) as Hannah opened her special gift.

Wood Lamp: Joia

4 Replies

Writing a letter to his Grandpa Baker (80) this morning for father’s day, Hyrum (14) turned to me and asked, “Grandpa has been finding some cool wood for me to make lamps out of. Do you think he would like one of my lamps as a father’s day present?” “I’m sure he would love it,” of course I replied.

Hyrum found the piece of wood for this little lamp when working for a friend to clear his yard and flower gardens of weeds. Obscured by the weeks was the small stump of a dead evergreen. Hyrum could see the potential in this dead stump. He asked if he could make something out of it, brought it home, and began to give it new life as a lamp.

We made bases for small lamps by cutting discs off the end of an old cedar fence post. The wood was old and cracked, but we wood-glued the pieces together, allowed them to cure, then ran them through a neighbor’s planer.

We named the little lamp Joia, a joyous Portuguese word meaning “gem.” Hyrum gave Joia to his Grandpa today, the same Grandpa that inspired our lamp-making in the first place with his lamp Timponogos, about 55 years old. Grandpa seemed as pleased to receive the lamp as Hyrum was to gift it. This little gem of a lamp has connected the generations with memories and a common love of creation and beauty.

Wood Lamp: Stone

Leave a reply

Stone by Hyrum Baker

Though made of wood, Hyrum and I thought Stone a good name for this little gem of a lamp, perfect for an end-table or night-stand. Stained a dark Jacobean, we thought its swirls reminiscent of cooling magma on some ancient volcanic seashore. Note the brass electrical tube wound tightly with jute twine.

This was one of our early wood lamp projects, before we embarked on more ambitious projects like Waves and Smoke, both masterpieces envisioned by Hyrum (then 12). Waves sold for $500.

Along with Reach, we traded Stone for in-kind services, provided by my journeyman friend Justin, to power my chicken-coop studio. We had set the price at $145.

Wood Lamp: Little Guy

Leave a reply

Little Guy by John Baker

Not all of Baker Brothers lamps are large (like Dolphin and Grace) or ornate (like Smoke and Waves). Some are small and simple, but still beautiful, like Little Guy, pictured above. Made from a fairly flat piece of drift wood, it resembles a small floating barc. A decorative stone placed just so balances the lamp perfectly on the wood’s natural three contact points (don’t worry–it won’t fall over without the stone, just tip slightly, as if riding a wave). The brass tube containing the wire and holding the shade is wrapped with jute twine for a rustic, seafaring look.

Little Guy can accompany you on your next maritime imagination adventure for $180, proceeds to fund the Bakers brothers’ attendance at the National Boy Scout Jamboree and their college funds. (An assortment of lamp shades is available.)

Wood Lamp: Grace

Leave a reply

Grace

The piece of driftwood that became the lamp Grace leaned against my shed for about a decade, a temporary decoration with which I might do something someday. It joined my other decorations, antiques, hanging from the shed by nails, though the wood lay on the ground, frequently obscured by weeds and grass.

This lamp posed the special challenge of mounting its lithe and twisting form to the base. At first I used a single nut and bolt, with washers at each end. But no matter how tight, the lamp still wobbled. Eventually, after staining and wiring, I added another bolt, and the lamp now stands firm like a ship’s mast to a ship. While drilling such a lamp for wire would normally be a challenge, only minimal drilling was required. The wire follows mostly natural cracks running down the back of the wood.

At 4.5 feet tall, a possible companion piece to Hyrum’s lamp Dolphin (4 feet even), we suggest a value for this lamp of $850.

Not just my sons have raised money for the National Boy Scout Jamboree. I join them in both the fund-raising and the scouting efforts. I attended in 2013 as an assistant scoutmaster, one of four men accompanying a troop of 36 Boy Scouts. I will attend again in 2017 in the same role. I am pictured here with my sons John and Caleb, in the Salt Lake City International airport, exhausted but happy after our three-week adventure.

I will post pictures and stories of additional wood lamps soon.

Wood Lamp: Dolphin

7 Replies

Dolphin by Hyrum Baker

Hyrum (14) and I have worked on Dolphin for the better part of a year. This lamp began as an unassuming piece of weathered drift wood, distinguished by its beaver chew marks at both ends.

Not owning an air compressor (yet), Hyrum devised an ingenious, low-cost method of cleaning the wood of sand and dust: a bicycle pump fitted with a ball needle. Quite effective.

Drilling this piece of wood, 48 inches from nose-tip to tail, was a challenge, due both to the length and the twisting curves of the wood. We bored several holes with a long 5/16″ bit, then enlarged the holes with a 3/8″ bit. Having the end of one bore meet the beginning of the next bore was indeed a challenge, but we made it work.

For convenience, we decided to stain the lamp wood laying flat before mounting it to its base.

With the lamp stained once, we were prepared to mount it to its base. I learned the hard way on another tall lamp that a single bolt leaves the lamp wobbly, no matter how tight. So we used two bolts, ratcheting the nuts down hard, with large washers on both ends, and with a little lock nut to keep them tight. Black caulk filled the holes and covered the bolt heads. We drilled and routed the base to accommodate the electrical chord.

The next challenge was to thread the lamp wire through the several angled drill holes. We first used a coat hangar to thread a length of electrician’s tape through the lamp, then used the tape to pull the wire through the lamp.

With all the hardware work complete, we now applied more coats of Provincial WiniWax stain, then three coats of gloss polyurethane. We often use different color stains for the base and the lamp in way that highlights the lamp (see Waves, Smoke, and Reach), but for Dolphin, a floor lamp, we thought using the same color stain for both was more effective.

(Dolphin, in the final stages, is pictured in the background, with Grace in the foreground, and Smoke looking on from the sidelines.)

With black felt on the bottom and a simple but pretty shade on top, Dolphin is ready to swim into someone’s home. We suggest a value of $850 for Dolphin (though we are confident that it would fetch more in many boutiques). As a reminder, Hyrum is making these exotic wood lamps to fund his way to the 2017 Boy Scout National Jamboree, and then to college.

Making these lamps together, while each one poses its own unique challenges, has been a true father-and-son joy. I hope to continue our hobby into the future and Hyrum and his brothers become fathers themselves.

Shoe Shine Boxes

2 Replies

ONB

When I was a boy, my father scrounged scraps of oak plank and made himself a beautiful shoe shine box, of his own design, with his initials “ONB” carved on one end and chiseled greenery on the other. He made a similar box for me, bearing my initials “REB”.

20140406_220428

REB

As boys, my four sons often watched me shine my shoes, asking me if I would please shine theirs. Then they began asking if they could use my shoe shine stuff to shine their own shoes. They have enjoyed using my shoe shine box during their boyhood years.

This Christmas I presented to each of my sons their own shoe shine box. It was time for them to have their own, to carry on the tradition. For lack of tools, time, and skill, I simplified the design. But I still find their shoe shine boxes elegant.

I had planned to make the shoe shine boxes over the Thanksgiving weekend while staying with my parents. Caleb (16) asked if he could stay one night with me, so I decided to let him in on the secret and help.

After Caleb left, Grandpa, the original shoe shine box carpenter, helped me finish the boys’ boxes.

My sons may be the only living boys to have such shoe shine boxes, in a three-generation genealogy of shoe shine boxes, made by their father and grandfather.

I hope my sons find years of enjoyment and pride in shining their shoes with their shoe shine boxes. And who knows: perhaps they will make such boxes for their own children someday.

I hope you will find a unique and meaningful way to connect with your sons and daughters, and to carry on the traditions of your generations.

Wood Lamp: Reach

3 Replies

Reach, a lamp by Roger Baker

At 42 inches tall, this lamp presented a unique challenge. Whereas Smoke and Waves were made of hard twisting wood difficult to drill, this lamp was rotten on the inside and brittle on the outside. To keep the delicate exterior from constantly flaking off, I brushed it with several coats of diluted wood glue, transparent when dry. A Provincial stain covered it nicely. To reinforce the interior, I poured into the cavity a mixture of plaster-of-paris and wood glue, inserting a length of old curtain rod to preserve a conduit for the lamp wire. Despite the challenges, I was quite happy with how this lamp turned out. I called it Reach for its tall, elegant, vertical lines.

Though we believe Reach would have sold in excess of $600, I gave it to my good friend Justin M. in trade for his much-appreciated time as a journeyman electrician in wiring my outbuildings, including my chicken coop, work shop, and future writing studio, the interior walls of which I am finishing with antique brick acquired from a retired farmer.

Wood Lamp: Waves

Leave a reply

Waves, a lamp by Hyrum Baker

My son, Hyrum, made this gorgeous natural wood lamp, with a little coaching from me. Like his lamp Smoke, the wood for this lamp came from a Russian Olive tree root. For this lamp, however, Hyrum chose a dark brown Jacobean stain. The lighter Sedona red base reflects light up into the twists and curves of the darker lamp, bringing focus to the rich glossy brown. Standing at about 27 inches tall, this lamp presented Hyrum with the challenge of drilling in hard wood with long bits at awkward angles. Hyrum, aged 12 at the time, turned an otherwise ugly root into a beautiful piece of artwork that doubles as a lamp. Hyrum named the lamp Waves, the delicately curving arms evoking images of rippling water. We suggest the value of this lamp to be $590 or more, depending on the market. Waves is waiting to adorn the office or living room of a discerning decorator.

Wood Lamp: Smoke

4 Replies

Smoke, a lamp by Hyrum Baker

My son, Hyrum, and I made this lamp together. For his first lamp project, in 2014, he chose a difficult piece of wood, which required drilling with long bits at awkward angles. We rescued this Russian Olive root, standing about 36 inches tall, on a firewood cutting expedition. Encrusted with mud, Hyrum worked for weeks to clean and sand the wood, filling the cracks with putty, and staining: he chose Sedona Red. The putty didn’t stain well, so we used a matching barn-red paint to cover the still-pale putty, then stained over the dried paint, all for a rich rusty red result. I am particularly proud of Hyrum, aged 12 at the time, for this excellent piece of artwork that happens to also be a lamp. (I helped a little, of course.) He named the lamp Smoke. We suggest the value of this lamp to be $650 or more, depending on the market. It is waiting to be taken to the perfect home.

Here is Hyrum pictured recently sitting at the bench of a federal district court judge during a recent scouting expedition for the Citizenship in the Nation merit badge.

After visiting the courthouse and other state and federal buildings, we enjoyed sandwiches at the Boston Deli, a downtown Salt Lake City lunch spot featuring jazz vinyl records, instruments, and music.

Woodcraft: Introduction

Leave a reply

Working with natural wood has always been a source of pleasure and camaraderie for my sons and me. On hikes we often spy gnarled driftwood or twisted tree roots that would make beautiful lamps. We decided to make a number of these lamps and sell them to fund our way to the 2013 and 2017 National Boy Scout Jamborees. For those unfamiliar with the Jamboree, it involves ten days touring the historic sites of New York City, Philadelphia, Gettysburg, Mount Vernon, and Washington D.C., then ten days at a high adventure camp in the mountains of West Virginia. About 40,000 scouts attended the 2013 Jamboree. Here is a picture of our troop’s camp area.

Pictured above are myself (one of four troop scoutmasters), my sons John and Caleb, and my nephews Thomas and Todd (four of 36 scouts in the troop), posed before a reconstructed winter quarters cabin at Valley Forge.

We hope to make Baker Brothers Lamps a successful going concern. But in the meantime, we are learning skills and making memories together. Each post on the Rabbit Lane: Woodcraft page will feature one lamp or other woodcraft project created by my sons and myself, pictured here on September 11, 2011, before attending Sandy City’s 10th anniversary commemoration of the World Trace Center attacks.

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this: