Odd Job Artistry

This interesting piece was placed on the counter of a store, and customers could pay a nickel to spin the wheels, hoping for a good discount on their purchase.

A few mice made their home on the inside. This, in addition to general neglect, prevented the mechanism from running.

There were a few pieces that were missing or needed to be remade. This little tray had to be hand carved.

When this came in, there was so much polish and dirt built up that you couldn’t see the engraved arrow (above the handle).

A fresh polish and this beautiful contraption is ready to go.

The top had shrunk enough to create a gap at each corner (front left), and probably explains the missing corner (front right).

The top shrunk, breaking the veneer in each corner.

This corner completely broke away. Unfortunately, it wasn’t recovered so I had to make a new one.

First, I had to glue in a new piece of wood…

…then I hand carved it to match the moulding detail.

The existing corners had to be cut ever so slightly so that they fit the new, shrunken top.

This music box is again like new.

The customer brought this in after it had fell to the floor. The tail had broken into several pieces.

Here’s a close-up of the damaged tail. Most of the pieces were there.

The first step was to glue up the pieces.

Unfortunately, one piece was missing and needed to be remade.

Finding redwood was harder than carving it (redwood is considered endangered, and hard to source).

A little color to hide the damage, and this job is complete.