The Craftiest Workshop

Our neighbour in Fort McMurray approached me in April about making a growth chart for her grandchild. She wanted it to look like a real tree and she knows that we have some unique pieces of wood stacked near the house and in the backyard. We chose a few potential pieces and brought them back to Grande Prairie. The only real parameter was that it needed to be 6 1/2 feet tall.

The wood pieces we chose were wood caps; the rounded part of the tree that is removed when someone is cutting slabs or making dimensional lumber. One side is flat and the other side the rounded outside of the tree. Because these caps are removed in one long piece with a chainsaw, it takes some work to get it flattened and smooth.

Chris used the grinder to get it as even as possible. There was no sending it through the planer or drum sander as we wanted to keep the back rounded. He also had to remove the bark or bugs would continue to thrive underneath. After getting it mostly smooth, an orbital sander with varying grits was used to make it as smooth as possible.

I had the easier but tedious time of tracing out and burning the numbers and dashes onto the wood. The stencil that I had for making a growth chart doesn’t exactly measure correctly. Each “page” of the stencil is correct but the bridging between each page throws off the measurement. I also discovered that burning on a long narrow piece is tricky as there is no where to rest your wrist when you are so close to an edge. I had to do the burning in 1/2 foot batches or my wrist got too tired.

I put off finishing the growth chart until my brother’s dogs left. I felt like I needed more focus. I was also a little wary of how I was going to make the two woodland characters that she asked to be added to the growth chart. It turns out that making the chickadee and squirrel was the most fun part of the whole project for me.
I used some pieces of plywood and traced out the outer shape. I cut the pieces with the bandsaw. I also cut out the wing of the chickadee and tail of the squirrel as a separate piece. This created a more 3D animal and allowed for me to hide where the wooden peg attached to it. I enjoyed painting on the different colours and bringing them to life.

Chris figured out a way to use pieces of wood to make a French cleat. The block of wood is cut at an angle so that the top piece is attached to the wood and bottom piece attached to the wall.

Once the holes were drilled at every 6”, I started putting on coats of the polycrylic. I always start with the back so I can sand and fix any drips that I miss before coating the front side. I would say that between the back and front, I did about 15 coats with at least an hour of drying for each coat.

Here is a photo of the front and back.
The different colours of the birch come out beautifully once the wood is coated with the Matte Polycrylic.

And another couple with me standing beside it.

I chose the worst outfit ever for taking a photo.

We delivered the growth chart on Christmas Day after driving from Grande Prairie to Fort Mac.
I loved my neighbour’s reaction to seeing it.

They sent us a photo of their grandson and his parents with the growth chart.

Although I love how this turned out, I am not sure that working with wood with a rounded back is the best choice. It not only makes for a challenge to create a smooth surface to work on but also a challenge to figure out how to mount it to a wall. On the other hand, a nice piece of 2X10 in spruce with knots would look nice but the top and sides wouldn’t end up looking like a tree.

Workings on these bigger projects together gives us some insight as to how things would go if we decide to turn woodworking into a business. We have realized that we can’t work on certain aspects of woodworking together at the same time in the same space. My husband has his way of doing things and I have mine and neither of us has any patience for the other. I might be better off making smaller gift type items and he work on bigger things like furniture.

All that being said, each different project helps us learn and grow as crafters/artists.
You never know what you can create until you try.