My wife’s side of the family has a tradition of doing a Secret Santa among the grown-ups. With other words, everyone pulls a name from a hat, and then you need to get a present for that person. Each year it has been very easy to guess who has gotten a gift from me, and…
Personalised Key Holder
We were going to visit family abroad and the day before we were heading to the airport, I realised that I should have made something as a gift. Couple of weeks back I made a template for a simple key holder that I was planning to give out as a Christmas present. I had a…
Silfer Works Cap
As my son’s teddy got a fancy sombrero, I thought that now was my turn to get a hat! I got new maker’s marks laser engraved (I will post about these soon!), so I wanted to test the larger one on a small project. I don’t have a cap for the autumn, so now was…
The smallest leather sombrero
As you might have already figured out, I’m learning leather working as a new skill for my portfolio of capabilities. As it often goes, my kids come up with some great small projects, and this time is no exception. My son was spending time with me in the workshop, and asked if I could make…
Unnecessary case for my AirPods
I’ve been very interested in learning leatherworking for years already, but never took the leap and actually started learning. I finally decided that I will take the plunge and ordered the basic tools that I thought I needed. I know from experience that I need a project to focus on if I want to learn…
A sauna ladle from the past
I was visiting my childhood home in Finland, and while I was sitting in the sauna I realised that my old sauna ladle was still there. It was made by me when I was around 10 years old, and it has been in my parents sauna ever since. I don’t think it was ever properly…
Useless XMAS gifts for my colleagues
I have a tradition of creating useless Christmas gifts for my colleagues. The criteria is that it must be made by me and the more useless it is, the better. I think this year I have outdone myself…
Sign for IT support with Open & Closed indicator
We are setting up a new On-Site IT support team at work, as apparently our support monkey was not doing good enough job. I decided that they need a proper sign for their desk which can show if they are in the office or not. It’s a simple design made out of 3mm birch plywood,…
Carving Halloween pumpkins – with a laser!
My kids are still too young to handle a knife, so they can’t carve their own pumpkins. They first draw the design on the pumpkin before I carve it out. I always need remind them that the design doesn’t have to be perfect, and it might be that I can’t carve it out perfectly either….
A drawing paper stand
Both of my kids love to draw. The first thing that comes from their mouths when they get home is: “where do we have paper?”. We have piles of blank paper standing around everywhere, and if we don’t, it’ll be a bad day. I decided that now was the time to get organised and get…