Maple candlesticks

I had a phone call early on in the week from a friend asking if I could create something for his wife to celebrate their wedding anniversary, which just so happend to have wood as its linked material. For a request like this there are only two choices, small box or candlesticks. As his budget would not run to a small box, she married cheep, it would have to be the candlesticks. Normaly I would fire up the lathe and get to it, however having just finished a project that called for lots of tricky, repetitive turning the thought of a return to the drone of the lathe did not fill me with joy. Instead I decided to try out a design based on something I had seen on the net a few months ago. 

The idea was simple enough, a block of timber had random facets planed onto it, with the odd one gilded for a bit of dramatic effect.

 Having first glued and then squared up some nice Maple I had in the store, I started by drilling a 25mm whole in the center of the top about 30mm deep, this tends to be an industry standard for candles. I then set to work planning my faces, which was easy to start but as the work progressed some ingenious cramping was called for. 

When happy with the balance of the pieces I sanded each face, pencil marking them as I went so as not to miss one out. Then armed with my Gesso pot, soft brush ( I use a lady's blusher brush for this, it works a treat ) and some Gold leaf, I set to work on the dramatic effect. 

After applying three coats of Danish oil I was quite happy with the results, let's hope the wife is.