This past July my sister and her family made their annual trip to British Columbia and my sister suggested that since my nieces always received handmade gifts that we should spend some time in the workshop together and get them to try their hands at it.
After consulting with my nieces about what they would like to make we settled on maracas. The hollowed part would be too difficult for them so I made that in advance and left the handles for them to make.
When they were here I showed them a few of the basics for spindle turning and got them to practise the cuts. They then sketched out patterns for their handles and turned them on the lathe.Then they experimented with different types of filling until they found sounds that they liked and we glued the handles on.
