[Claude]

Thanks, Bill. An easy bottlestopper for you to start with would be to do another head for your palace guard; or the head of your Leprechan. I generally drill the block of wood with a 3/8 inch forstner bit (brad point works also) about 1 inch deep, for the dowel and cork. I take a wine bottle cork and drill it with the 3/8 dowel also, put a dowel about 3 inches long in it with some Elmer's glue and let it dry. I then chuck the dowel into my drill press, and using a wood block-backed piece of sandpaper (120 grit), slowly sand a taper into the cork; followed by a piece of 220 grit to smooth the cork a bit more . After the carving is done, I cut the dowel in the cork to the proper length and glue it into the hole in the carving. Let dry overnight and paint.

For some of my miniature bottle stoppers, I've used 1/8 inch dowel.

Claude

[feb]

Claude real nice play looks great. soda bottle for me quit that stuff awhile back.