Zee Zee the Zebra

   The rare and special "Ontario Zebra". 

 I was rummaging around in a closet today and found this fellow hiding in the undergrowth.   When I was a kid, a very long time ago I had a wee rocking horse I called Jimmy Rickason. I don't know where the name came from but I still have Jimmy, though he is pretty faded and tired enough that he rocks sort of lopsidedly.  The craft co-op, Textures to which I belong had a window featuring toys a while ago, for the window I copied Jimmy's size and shape and made a Zebra version. It didn't sell, just as well, my Grandson got some mileage out of ZeeZee (not the most creative name, I know) and I expect Clara will have her turn too, and it will be years before they out grow it totally. Who knows one of them may have ZeeZee in their basement in 50 years like I have JImmy Rickason, that would sure make Opa feel good.


   If you have ever made anything with rockers, a chair, crib or Zebra you know how important it is that both rockers are exactly the same, not close, exactly.  If the rockers are not exactly the chair...will creep sideways across the floor as it rocks.  That is something to check when buying a cheap rocking chair at a discount furniture place.


   To get the rockers exactly the same I used a big hunk of double sided tape to make sure that both piece of wood went through the band saw exactly the same and was ultimately sanded exactly the same shape too.


   After the rockers were made I was very careful to attach them securely and squarely to the seat. ( pocket hole technology strikes again) Cutting the head out on the scroll saw was easy and since I used 4 quarter clear pine for the project sanding it was a breeze.  


   I painted the whole thing with multiple coats of white and then taped on the stripes, painted with black spray paint, two coats and then peeled the painters tape off.


   As you can see, I did not want my zebra to be confused by people for the the real thing so I went with a different style of stripping.