We had a tough time choosing among the hundreds of great submissions, but in the end we picked one piece of furniture and one turning as the two winning entries in our first Holiday Gift Challenge. Thanks to all who entered. We know the recipients of your gifts must be both thrilled and impressed with your efforts.

 

One prize went to Jordan Elise Durban of Arcade, New York, who built a solid maple high chair for her twin sons.  Durbin has been woodworking for only two years.  She was inspired to start woodworking by her mother, who is herself a self-taught furniture maker.

 

After giving birth to twins, she realized the need for a chair to seat and feed both of them at once.  She designed the chair based on one she had seen in the Martha Stewart Living magazine.  The angled holes were drilled freehand and a spokeshave and shavehorse were used to craft  the stretchers.  Finally, wanting it to appear older, she finished it with a coat of espresso water-based stain, followed by two coats of barn red milk paint and a coat of black milk paint, and  a linseed oil finish.  Durbin says that she doesn’t know how she’d feed her twins without the chair. 

 

Our other winner is Keith Burns of Collierville, Tennessee, who turned a segmented hollow form out of Leopardwood with an ebony finial. 

 

Burns, a landscape photographer, was introduced to woodworking in high school and took it up again after seeing a demonstration at a woodworking show.  He joined a club, eventually becoming vice president of the Midsouth Woodturners Guild.  Burns turned the Leopardwood hollow form as a Christmas gift for his wife.  The piece contains 217 pieces of Leopardwood and is 6 inches in diameter and 11 1/2 inches tall. 

 

Our winners will receive a Lie-Nielsen Carbide Burnisher, a 2008 Fine Woodworking Archive DVD, a one year subscription to Fine Woodworking, and a Fine Woodworking-embossed twill cap.  Thanks again to all who participated.

 

-Kirsten Lie-Nielsen is a intern with Fine Woodworking.

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