Fairy House Challenge – My Process

I decided to enter the Fairy/Gnome House Challenge hosted by Living Beyond Disability (links below). I immediately had the idea to employ a variety of woodworking techniques to create my vision. Several of the pieces are turned. Some are power carved, some employ pyrography and others involved scrolling. I even incorporated a resin pour into the process. I had a dry spalted half log of oak that was too punky to turn unless I stabilized it. So I thought this would be a good project for it so I used it for the mushroom cap roof. I grabbed a log of Ashe Juniper for the stalk (main body of the house). I roughly turned both of these to the shape I wanted on my lathe. I cut a piece of 3/4″ cabinet grade Baltic birch ply for the base (12″ square to meet the rules). Then I power carved both pieces to final shape and drilled the inside of the house out on the drill press. I used my pneumatic saw and a die grinder to cut and shape the openings for the door and window. Then I found a line drawing of a door I liked and scrolled out all the pieces. I found a window I liked at Hobby Lobby, but wanted to make my own so I took a picture and used that as the pattern and scrolled that. I used another new epoxy resin that I’ve been wanting to try. It too is thinner than most of the traditional ones you’ve seen used. It is Loggin Two Epoxy Resin (link below). I haven’t tried turning it yet, but it should be turnable. It takes about 48 hours to cure, but it wasn’t as soft as the Floral Epoxy Resin. It also is designed for deep pours (up to two inches) and doesn’t need pressure if you follow those guidelines. I used it to pour the floor of the house and adhere the “grass” and stone walkway to the base. I then turned a tire from a piece of Ash to make a tire swing and dyed it black with Speedball India Ink. I finished the piece with three coats of matte water-based polyurethane spray. If you have questions that I didn’t answer, feel free to contact me. Thanks for watching.