The castle is composed of four wall sections, making it easy to set up and break down. One detail that doesn't show up in the photographs is a series of small holes drilled to accommodate homemade toothpick flags on the towers and by the entrance.

Materials: solid mahogany and sapele.

Walking blocks are a bit like really low stilts except they are easier for younger kids to manage. They're a really simple and easy to make gift that are a lot of fun for kids to use. Solid walnut.

The elves crank out some more Christmas product;

I made Waldorf style wooden play stands for the kids last Christmas. This year Bridget asked me to make up a set of arches that could be easily attached to a pair of stands and draped with silks or other fabric to create private play space and/or forts. She'll be dying some silk fabric for this purpose. They're made of maple veneered plywood.

I've been especially busy over the last month or so building a bunch of wooden toys for the kids. These were by far the most complicated of the bunch. They are a pair of wooden ferry boats meant to transport matchbox cars, zhu zhu pets, and miniature playthings of all sorts from one fantastical side of the living room to the other. I built them according to plans found in a book about making heirloom wooden toys. The materials are all left-over scraps from around the shop and are a mixture of sapele, walnut, poplar, and baltic birch. Though I work with wood for a living, I don't usually work on this scale and making the boats ended up being a nice little challenge and change of pace. I'm pretty pleased with how they came out.

I took a bunch of pictures cataloging my progress as I built them. Here are a few.

1. Finished boats
2. Plans from a book on building heirloom wooden toys
3. Stack of preliminary parts
4. Cargo area/Sidewall detail
5. Railing post detail
6. Rollers on underside
7. Headlights (these little suckers were quite a bit of work)
8. Set up for Lacquering
9. Nearly finished mock-up
10. Final assembly
11. Threading the railing

Plans courtesy of Making Heirloom Toys by Jim Makowocki, 1996. Taunton Press.