[Birdman]

Almost immediately, when I saw the Lock Seeds for the first time, I thought how neat it would be to somehow turn them into Kitchen Decor...and after some thought, pricing, and planning, I have begun doing just that!

The plan is simple, buy four capsule toy Lock Seeds of my favorite fruit (banana, pineapple, mango, and kiwi) and mount them on a wood stained plaque from a craft store.

This of course meant I had to somehow carve out a notch for each one...which was the first hurdle.

I looked around and got myself a budge model Dremmel, a carving guide attachment, and a carving drum head. At first I was going to go all in on the first go of it...then I thought it might be best to do a test run on a cheaper, smaller, plaque seeing as I never in my life have used a Dremmel tool or attempted any kind of wood working outside of Shop Class.

Good thing I did.

The first attempt was butchered horribly, as you can see in the first few pictures. The notch was an awful rounded thing that showed gaps on the sides when mounted, I used the grinding head to sand the wood (which burned it horribly), and I mis-measured the placement of the locking piece, which also broke as I tried to attach it.

...but the proof of concept was there, and it looked cool. But, I still wanted to give it another try before going on to the final product.

As you can see, my second go was vastly improved. I took my time, edged with a smaller carving head, and sanded by hand. The locking piece is still a bit rough (it's balsa wood so the carving bit chewed it up around corners), but it's damn good.

**UPDATE** 01/18/14

Did the staining and seal coat today, which completes the prototype process. As you can see from the new pictures, the staining is a little uneven, but that's what the prototype is for.

It looks great otherwise, especially when mounted on the wall. Although, supplies cost a bit more than expected for this stage, so unfortunately I have to wait until next paycheck to start with the final, larger, plaque.

**UPDATE** 02/09/14

Carved out the slots for the large plaque, not nearly as clean as my prototype unfortunately, but it works. I'm waiting to get some better wood to make the locking pieces, Balsa wood gets eaten up by the dremmel bit and doesn't look at all presentable.

**UPDATE** 04/12/14

It's finally done!!! As you can see from the images, there's a bit of a learning curve between the prototype and the final in many ways. I got better with the dremmel, used better wood for the locking pieces, and learned how to stain properly.

I also learned that crazy glue was probably not the best way to attach the locking pieces, as, even if you sand it down, it does something to the wood that makes it damn near impossible to stain properly. Oh well. I'm happy with it, that's all that matters.

Trying to decide what to do with the prototype piece. It's far from perfect so I wouldn't feel comfortable selling it. Maybe I'll see if anyone is interested in trading for a small gashapon toy or something. Message me if you are interested.

As far as taking commissions for these things? I'm still on the fence. On the one hand, I have A LOT of stain left. On the other, I don't know if I've gotten good enough with the dremmel to start charging folks yet. We'll see what happens in the future. But for now, I'm going to enjoy my new kitchen decor!