These walnut and steel glassybaby votive holders started as a project for a Christmas and birthday present for my mother-in-law.  The original one can hold five glassybaby votives, while the “birthday present” holders pictured can hold two glassybaby votives each.
 

The Process

After milling the stock and creating a jig, a bowl-carving router bit was used to create the indentations in the walnut to hold the glassybaby votives.

After cutting the steel angles, and grinding and filing the edges, a drill press was used to bore holes for attaching them to the walnut.

Following attachment of the feet/handles to the glassybaby votive holders, they were sanded and then treated with Odie’s Wood Butter, and then buffed to a shine.

This aspen log glassybaby holder was a present for a friend’s birthday.  The wood came from a felled Aspen on their property in Winthrop, WA.  They had originally requested a coat rack for their cabin, and I had the idea while staying out there to use the aspen for it.  Not a great woodworking wood, but I love how they both turned out.  The hard part was finding the hardware for the coat rack – stalled the project for a long while, but then I came across them at The ReStore.

The log glassybaby holder itself is – like the coat rack – fairly simple.  The second half of the aspen log sanded flat on the bottom, with four rubber feet, and spaces for the three Glassybaby votives drilled with a large forstner bit.