As Valentines Day approaches, I see an incredible amount of gifts with this theme on social media, traditional media and shops slowly creeping into everyday life. I should probably follow this trend an make some wooden hearts to cash in on the “season of love”. However, for some reason (many people call me obstinate/difficult/hard-headed etc.), I do not follow the normal trends. For those of you who have barely recovered from the Christmas season with jolly red, white and green still fresh in your memory, just to be overwhelmed by new year’s celebratory items, then back to school onslaughts and not really feeling ready for another yearly event that is blown a bit out of proportion, I bring you these grim necklaces (available here):

A grim necklace!

These necklaces are not exactly suited as Valentines day gifts (much more suited for Halloween – but I have other items in mind for then). The arms are made from Alder-wood and encased in metal manacles linked with an elegant chain. They are quite grim.

The evolution of this necklace.

I am not exactly sure what inspired me to make these necklaces but I originally tried to carve a hand and arm from a piece of maple. This did not work well and took a very long time to make. I decided that the scroll saw is the way to do it and made the first one using some birch plywood.

First necklace made from plywood

This necklace was quite nice and I ran a small competition to give it away (the second competition from Induku – see the current competition here). There was a bit of intrest and I decided that I will make more.

I used a piece of alder wood and cut the outer image. I then split it in two and cut the details. This leaves me with several severed fingers and other bits. I then glue everything in place again.

Split and fingers removed – grim in its own way

This is followed by sanding, painting and adding a coat of lacquer.

All bits glued together again

Sanded and ready to be painted

Currently I have two versions. The first is a hand grabbing at a chord necklace (available here) -note the hole through the hand is drilled before I split it into two pieces. The second is, of course, the manacled arms (available here).

Single arm grasping at the chord necklace

Manacled arm necklace

Since these are quite grim and fit with a darker image, I am planning to make more with an even more metal feel, by making the hand into the sign of the horns and can be used by rock/metal enthusiasts or people who need to ward of evil.

As with most of my scroll saw projects, I really enjoyed designing them and then seeing the final product very close to what I imagined. These are for sale now and I am planning a whole range of grim themed projects.

Robroy.