Puzzle Piece Trivets

Wooden Puzzle Piece Trivets

Super quick project begun and finished today! Since I built my Rebel Table, it’s gotten a LOT of use, including for hot meals in front of the TV in our Lair. I wanted a couple of handy trivets to avoid ruining the table finish with hot plates. So I grabbed the first two scraps that looked appropriately sized – two leftover cherry panels of vastly different coloring. I decided on the design on the fly, quickly scrolled out the shape, planed, sanded, and tossed on some @odiesoil, feet, and a hanger. They will now reside next to our futon for quick access.

Salty, Daniel D. Brown, Ph.D., 2021

“Salty”, Daniel D. Brown, Ph.D., 2021

Jumping spiders are my favorite spiders. They’re cute, they’re floofy, they’re incredibly observant, and their athletic abilities are astounding. They also dance to woo the ladies like I never could.

The name comes from their family name “Salticidae.”

All pieces cut on scrollsaw, in this case exclusively using my scrap wood collection. Species: maple (regular and curly), walnut, mesquite, ipe, katalox, ebony, holly, cherry, & rubber tree (reclaimed from a cheap old jewelry box).

The main image upon which this is roughly based is “Come Closer, Jumping Spider” by Diaz Gio (@godzaid@giochimitsu), who has some amazing photography and an art account).

Boba Fett, Daniel D. Brown, Ph.D., 2020

“Boba Fett”, Daniel D. Brown, Ph.D., 2020

Boba Fett is complete! It only took ~6 weeks!
When I started this thing, I had no idea Boba would suddenly become big news again (no spoilers, aside from the fact Fett is back, which I think is safe since they’ve announced “The Story of Boba Fett” series). I had just read a really cool panel by @john_cassaday in Marvel Star Wars (2015) and instantly decided it would make for a cool wooden intarsia piece.

I wanted more “comicy” colors in this piece than I can get with natural wood grains, so I dyed the pieces with alcohol dyes. All 270 (!) pieces were cut on scrollsaw from a single storm-felled sycamore branch I picked up nearby.

Note: You can see the entire creation of this piece HERE in my Instagram story highlight.

Boba Fett, Daniel D. Brown, Ph.D., 2020