George’s Handmade Gifts

I routinely craft handmade gifts in the months leading up to the Big Day. (Sometimes it’s a little last minute.) Here’s a look at what Santa recently did. Maybe you can borrow some ideas.

Top 4 Handmade Gifts

Plaque

The plaque I made for my sister was cut on a CNC router, but you could do a similar project with lettering templates and a handheld router. What really makes this project pop is the epoxy that was poured into the lettering. I added pink dye to the epoxy to commemorate her work raising money for breast cancer research.

Speakers

I used the Rockler bluetooth speaker kit to make these babies.This is a small-scale project, so a great way to use up scrap. These could be as simple as a couple holes drilled in a piece of cool looking wood. The sound quality is good and provides enough volume for a small room. I had a bunch of spalted and curly maple, rosewood and paduak that I used for these speakers.

Gingerbread man

These were cut on CNC. You could possibly pattern cut them with a hand-held router, but honestly these are best made on a CNC. I used gingerbread clip art I found on the internet, and then cut the projects from walnut.

Kitchen knives

The knives I made started with a Nakiri knife kit and a paring knife kit. The woodworking part of this is making the handle, which can be done with standard woodworking tools. This is another great way to use up small, cool scraps.

We’re here to help if you need more ideas for handmade gifts.

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3 Responses to “George’s Handmade Gifts”

1. James Smart November 12th, 2022

   Hi George firstly big thumbs up to your sister for doing the 11 walks and glad she made it through her breast cancer. I would love to see how you made the plaque as my friends lost their son to cancer in 2018 at just 11 years old, and would love to see how you made it especially how you did the colouring. I would like to make something special for them as they are still finding it hard.

   Also the Bluetooth speaker, does it have to be a square box or can you do all kind of shapes and it still work well?

   Thank you George and keep up the good work and videos.

   James UK

   Reply

   • Customer Service November 14th, 2022

     Hello James,

     The Bluetooth speaker can be mounted into just about anything that you want; doesn’t have to be a square box.
     We don’t have a specific plan for that plaque, but George made it on a CNC, and we have tons of content on that: https://www.wwgoa.com/videos/benchtop-cnc/
     And if you search for “resin” on the WWGOA home page, you will find lots of content on how to use resin, including how to add color it it.
     Best of luck,

     Paul
     Woodworkers Guild of America

     Reply

2. Michael Hille December 20th, 2021

   Really like your knife handles. I will have to use the contrasting liner idea on the next knives I make. Thank you, Cal

   Reply