helping Hands

 As regular readers know I am a proud Opa.(grand father). My grand children are especially cute, smart and loveable and I have made many things for them in my workshop.

    My oldest grand daughter, Clara Bear is soon to be four years old. She slept as a baby in the crib I made her older brother and when she out grew the crib I made her bed.  Her bed is solid enough that an adult can sit on the bed and not worry that it is going to fall apart like a 'big box store' particle board kit bed. 

  Initially Clara's bed needed a side rail to keep her from rolling out of it in the night. My solution was to take one side off of the crib and attach it to the bed frame with clamps. Clara is big enough now she does not need a big side rail to keep her in bed but she does need a lower rail to help keep the many stuffed animals and dolls in bed with her. She has bears and turtles and owls and otters and princesses in profusion to keep her company as she sleeps.

 Yesterday's shop project was getting the new side rail parts together. You can see on the table a large beautiful piece of aromatic cedar that will be the rail for the bed and two hands.

  The hands are maple and just about Clara sized.  I am going to screw the hands to the bed frame and the side rail to the hands. I have left the cedar unfinished because it smells quite wonderful and I hope that Clara will like rubbing it and making the aromatic scent come out.  The hands are left unfinished because Clara and I are going to paint the hands on Monday before I put all the pieces together.  She will be able to paint the finger nails and put bracelets on the wrists and give the arms colourful sleeves, if she wants, or do what ever she feels.

  I have spent a fair amount of time thinking about how I wanted to modify Clara's bed so that it will be comfortable and personal. Typically I thought of various fancy designs and layers of varnish and hidden wood plugs and all those craftsman things.  In the end however I have chosen simple, practical and to let her make it as personal as she wants.

  If on Monday orange is the colour that she loves then the whole thing may end up orange, not my first choice but then it is not my bed.

 I'll keep you posted on how it all turns out.