Woodturning - The Nutcracker Soldier

Some of you may have noticed I haven't posted for a couple of weeks and that's because I been throwing my time at this project and trying to get orders out the door ready for Christmas delivery.

Last year I made a bell for the tree, this year I thought I would put a bit more effort into the Christmas Project, so I've made a Nutcracker Soldier! The design has changed several times on where the nuts would actually be cracked, in the end I went for a design where they are cracked in the hat around the back, next year I might look at making another one but use the more traditional way of having the mouth open.

The main body apple wood, the wood was part dried and finished off in the oven, it was left in for an extra 10 hours to darken the wood up, so a total of about 24 hours including the drying time. The hat and face are made from English Brown Oak, the legs are Sycamore, and the arms are Sycamore with the resin middle pieces.

Once all parts were completed the inlay of the Swarovski Crystals began, not exactly sure how many I used in the end but in excess of 2000 crystals are now on the piece, and yes it took several hours.

Probably not for sale this one but I'm always open to offers through my website, if you don't hear back from me its not enough!

My website - mjturning.com