Wooden Plaque for PhD student

Wooden Plaque for graduating PhD student Dr. Zheqi (Vaciry) Lee

Several years ago, I started making little plaques with names and degree for students in the @leeoesterreichlab after they receive their PhD. Today I can finally say congratulations to Zheqi “Vaciry” Li (@vaciryli), who had to defend his dissertation via Zoom this week. But he nailed it! This plaque is made from walnut, ambrosia maple, and cherry, and the design is roughly inspired by architecture from Huishan Ancient Town near Vaciry’s hometown of Wuxi, China. I have to give special thanks to @chelseachen655 and @kaiding568 for providing and proofing the characters.

Vaciry defending his dissertation (via video thanks to covid-19).

Pittsburgh/London Name Plaque – Daniel D. Brown, 2018

A few weeks ago some labmates asked me to make a name placard for their adviser/boss (my colleague and future boss) on his 50th birthday. I finally got around to trimming up some of the video I took (below). These are just quickly edited on my phone and will be incredibly boring for other woodworkers. It’s more for Adrian and others who don’t know what goes into this sort of thing. Happy birthday, Dr. Lee!
At the end you can briefly see another small one I did for a graduating PhD student, Dr. Ahmed Basudan (congrats @amab424!).

 

Emily Bossart PhD Plaque – Daniel D. Brown, 2018

Congratulations, Dr. Bossart! (@emiloulou14).
Here’s a quick little plaque I made for her in celebration of her completing the grueling trial that is the Dissertation Defense (and grad school in general from my experience). I’ve included a few little vids so she can see a bit of what went into it (cutting the wood to size on the table saw, then sanding, scrollsawing, and finishing). One of the pics is just showing the stain test on the piece of oak I used – I had no idea it would react so dramatically with my homemade steel wool/vinegar stain. The time lapse vid shows the pine base barely reacting at all (I’m guessing fewer tannins in it).