Earlier this year a co-worker approached me about making some music trophies. He has a music studio where he teaches music to children and wanted some trophies for his students. I agreed thinking that it would be a simple matter of turning a cup or some other shape. When he showed me a sketch of what he wanted it turned out to be more complicated. The trophy design is based on his logo and can not be turned for the most part.
I made most of the upper part of the music trophies using the band saw and scroll saw. One piece, shaped like note, I made from walnut wood. Then two heart shaped pieces that I made from maple.
At first I tried making the heart pieces separately but realized that aligning and joining them to the walnut piece was a problem. It was simpler to make them so they were still attached. Then I joined them to the walnut note piece at the point where they were attached. I joined the note and heart pieces to each other using a lap joint cut with a saw and chisels. After that I did more shaping using a half-round rasp and various sanding methods to round things over. In retrospect I do have a Dremel tool that would have been worth trying out with a carving burr.
With the first top for the music trophies figured out I made the rest using the same design.
With the tops made I was finally able to do some turning when I made the bases for the music trophies. Here they are on the workbench before finishing was complete.
After a bit of finishing they were ready for delivery. Ricky presented them to his students already and says that the were a bit hit with the kids.
