Wood turned Christmas ornaments are always a great item to make as the holiday season approaches. They sell well at craft fairs and any left over make great gifts for friends and family. Two types of turned Christmas ornaments that I have been making for a while now are ball ornaments and bell ornaments. This year I added ring turned ornaments as a third kind of turned Christmas ornament.
The ball ornaments that I made this year were all made from apple wood. This was mostly just because I had it available and I like the wood. These ornaments are made in three pieces with the ball being hollowed out and then finials attached to the top and bottom. In the past I have sometimes been a bit hit and miss on the finials but this year I seemed to have it dialed in from the start and I think that they are some of my best looking finials to date.
I had a special request from a family member for red ornaments in this style so I made a couple with the balls stained red and then the finials left natural.
Apparently I have given them a few ornaments over the years and red was the one colour still missing.
The next style of turned Christmas ornament that I made was done using a ring turning. For these a ring of wood was turned on the lathe with specific profiles on the inside and outside of the ring. The ring then gets cut into slices to make the ornaments. I found turning the profile on the inside of the ring to be a bit tricky and it took me a few attempts to get one that would work.
Once I had all of the slices cut out it looked like a small forest has sprouted on the table of my bandsaw.
After that the slices were cleaned up a bit and then dyed green.
And finally a topcoat of finish was added and they were strung up.
The final type of turned Christmas ornaments that I made this year were the bell ornaments. I have made these before and they are always a favourite. They are fun to make and people always like them. Basically I just use small sections of branch and shape and hollow them into a bell shape leaving a thin strip of bark at the edge. When I add the string I tie a small jingle bell to the inside so that they always have a little sound to them.
A couple of times during this past Christmas season I ran out and had to make some some more.
