That time of year rolls around again.
December 1st 0600hrs; cometh the Christmas carols. My wife just loves them.
We’ve never been big on lights, decorations, or any of that. In fact, we used to just stick the top part of a plastic tree in a pot full of sand to put our two presents beside. Not super festive; but always the carols … and the xmas rom-coms. 😑
A few years ago, I decided to mix things up and turn some scraps into something a little more fitting for our annual Bublé appreciation month. It’s made an appearance each year since and is great because it’s super easy to setup & put away. Just pull it out of the cupboard and put it back when done; no sand required.
I can’t remember what I hacked up to get that offcut of desktop but the Koppers log came from a bloke down the road. They’re a common landscaping type material used for posts and such. This one was probably a Southern Pine from the local forestry and mill. First step is getting it on the lathe and turning the tree’s foliage shape.
Cutting straight to it cause I don’t like to dick around.
The log had some blue-stain throughout, visible in the photos. This doesn’t affect the integrity just adds another, sometimes unwanted, dimension to the appearance. For this it’s not an issue and isn’t going to stand out in the finished product; so onto the next part. A piece of spotted gum lying around the workshop gets turned into a cylinder to become the tree’s trunk.
The trunk and tree looked like a pretty good combo together but still needed a base plinth. A run around on the bandsaw turned the desk offcut into a nice circular addition here. Mortices were bored into the tree bottom and base to house the trunk for a firm hold and neat finish. To add a little finishing touch, a star to sit atop.
The tapered dowel seen in the photo was necessary to get the star fitted. These Koppers logs contain the tree’s pith; the centre. It’s really resinous in this species. So much so, that glue can’t bond with it. To overcome this, the top end was bored out to some better heartwood, to accept the fatter part of the dowel. The tree’s bottom was no problem, as the trunk mortice easily opened up enough timber for gluing.
That previous mortice boring shot gives a really good look at the log’s position relative to the tree it came from. The annual growth rings are clearly visible around the centre and the earlywood (light part) and latewood (dark part) of each season’s growth are easy to pick also. This was a fast growing plantation tree. The dimensioned part is about 10mm (~3/8”) meaning this tree put on 20mm (~3/4”) in diameter in one season.
Enhance
Having the grain concentrically aligned with the tree’s cone also created a kind of plumage look. At first blush it might be a little bit subtle, but it nicely rings the tree’s circumference while seeming to cascade down; like real leaves tend to sit. The effect adds some interesting extra texture to the look; now to just make the thing green.
Paint would certainly be an option here, but this would obscure the natural tones of the grain. I opted to go with a homebrewed stain of green food colouring and methylated spirits. It paints on easily and the timber readily accepted it without any special prep so that was a plus. The colouring looks quite uneven in the photo with the fresh partial coat, but the overall tone, once dry was good. I think I ended up applying two coats. Time to toss the thing together.
I’d say the trunk/base fit was a bit sloppy, or the mortice wasn’t perpendicular. Maybe I was just feeling a bit excitable that day; I really can’t remember. For whatever reason at the time, I decided to dowel the trunk to the base, clamp the joint up with squares and tie the top with a metallic twist tie. Seems like overkill; and this is me we’re talking about here. Once that little number had cured the tree-top gets glued on, and voilà.
Turned out pretty good for a bloke who doesn’t know what he’s doing
Insert all the Christmases from then until now and that brings us to the present. It’s been a good little decoration over the years. Easy to pull out and put away, not messy, goes practically anywhere you need and stays pre-decorated; so super quick setup & packdown. Over the years the colouring has darkened some, but I guess good things just mature with age.
Then we just close those cupboard doors and that mess no longer exists
The tree has gone through a couple of different decorating setups. Au naturel, strung multi-coloured lights and frosted icicle lights, before landing at the current copper light string and glass baubles. Being solid timber might seem like a bit of an issue for adding or changing decorations but it’s not so bad. Tapping in a small wall panel nail works perfectly to hang something new on and using a Florentine bronze type, they don’t stick out at all. Which is good; because our decorations have started multiplying every year now.
Kind Regards,
Walker
November 2021
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