A Birthday Dragon

My daughter recently turned six years old.  When we asked her what she wanted for her birthday, she didn’t hesitate to reply.  She wanted my husband and I to make her a wooden dragon.  I knew right away that this was a request that I couldn’t deny, but I also knew that coming up with a dragon plan would take a little bit of time.  Guess what, time was the one thing we didn’t have much of – her birthday was only a few days away!

Having several young dragon fans in our house, at least I had a few models to get ideas from.  I drew up a quick design and my husband did the same.  He is a little more artistic than I am, but my ideas are good!  We combined thoughts, he re-sketched a plan and we went to work.   He drew up a pattern for the body, traced it onto paper and got started.  Meanwhile, I worked off of his sketch and drew up the wings.   We were off!  A few hours later, thanks to the help of the band saw, scroll saw, drill press and sander, we were ready to stain it then glue it.

Here is a picture of my husband cutting out a set of legs.  As you can see, the sketches were rough, but a decent sander can help cover up the rough places in cutting.

Here is a picture of the main body of the dragon after our initial work.  Notches were then cut to allow for the wings and legs.

The master woodworker might look at our creation and chuckle, but our daughter was thrilled! He has been given a place of honor in her bedroom, but she tells us that he manages to sneak out every now and then to raid the kitchen.   I guess that explains all the missing leftovers.

I love to be able to do things like this for our children and I love it even more that they appreciate it!

Romeo and Juliette – A Tale of Two Octopi

 They saw each other and it was love at first sight.  They wanted to swim off and live happily ever after but their families had different ideas.  Her father said that he came from the wrong side of the ocean and was beneath her.  His family said that she would never amount to anything and only wanted to be a starfish with her name in glowing plankton off the coast near Hollywood.   They didn’t care.  They were determined to make it work.  Their love would overcome and they would beat the odds.  They snuck out together one night, intent never to come back.  They would go find a sunken ship to call home and raise a slew of baby octopi.  Did it work, or did they become the appetizer special at Red Lobster?  Only the Shadow Bass knows.

Well, how was that for a tale of romance?  Maybe I should just keep to crafting and leave the story telling alone.  These cute little critters were made at the request of my kids.  I searched around online for something cute to make our daughter for her birthday.  She ended up with a purple octopus  and the rest just kind of followed along a few days later.  Here is a link to the pattern I mostly followed:

http://thekansashooker.blogspot.com/2009/06/free-octopus-pattern.html

I made a few minor changes to suit what I liked best but it is a great pattern just like it is.  My favorite crochet hook is a size 5/F, so that is what I used.  To be honest, I don’t even own a G.  I found that the spiral legs were a little too spirally with 3 sc in each chain stitch, so left it to one.  As you can see, they still were plenty curly.  I also skipped rounds 9 – 15 on the body and just did one row of sc when I reached the middle before I started going back down.   Of course, the facial features are different, but we will all choose to finish ours off a little differently.  I added a flower to Juliette’s head just so she would look pretty for Romeo!  I'd be glad to share the pattern for the flower if anyone is interested.

I hope you like the pattern and will admit it’s a little better than the story.  The kids all loved the octopuses and they are simple and fun to make.  If you have some extra time, give one a try and let us know how it comes out!

Unique Cutlery

Well, here it is, my first craft related post!  This is actually a little hobby my husband has recently embarked upon.  He is making knives using reciprocating saw blades and any number of things for the handles.  His first few creations were with deer antlers.  They have a lot of character and each one is unique.  Here is a picture of his very first one.  

 The next knife handle was made with an oak dowel.  It is certainly functional, and not at all bad looking, but doesn’t have quite the personality as the antler handled ones.   

Moving on, he started experimenting with Bois d’ Arc wood.  We have a tree out in the yard that was anxious to share it’s branches with us.  He fiddled with shaping the wet wood on the lathe but wasn’t satisfied with the result.  One knife was made with wet wood, the bark still on.  I have to admit that I find this knife quite attractive in a rugged sort of way.    

Finally, he went out to the back of the property and got the Bois ‘d Arc wood off of some very aged fence posts.  The wood inside is beautiful.  He worked on shaping and sanding some of it and came up with these for handles.  I can’t wait to see the finished product!

If you want more information on the particulars of the process, read on.  As mentioned, the knife blades started out as reciprocating saw blades.  A lot of sanding, grinding and sharpening goes into each blade in order to shape it and get it up to spec.  Spec in this instance is razor sharp.  Until then, it won’t meet my husband’s quality standards.  He hasn’t done any particular testing to find out how well the blades will hold an edge, but he took the first knife he made with him today when he went looking for the Bois d’ Arc posts.  He used it to scrape the outside of the wood off down far enough for the color to show on about 10 aged posts.  A simple stropping had the edge back to razor sharp.  He plans on expanding out and trying other types of blades, but for now these are keeping him plenty busy.

If you want more detail on the handle making process, just let us know!   It is an inexpensive, fun way to make a knife.  His next project is sheaths.  I might have to help him out with that one. 

Hello and Welcome!

Hello and welcome to my blog.  I set this blog up to share my small business journey with you.  One of the hardest things about getting a business going was trying to decide what it is I wanted to do.  It made a lot of sense to make it something that I enjoyed doing and that I was actually ok at.  I have been making crafts for many years.  I guess the reason that I stick with it is that I enjoy it.  A finished product gives me a sense of accomplishment.  The family enjoys it too.  They like the crafts and they like learning how to make them.  As a homeschooling mom, I'm always looking for something new to teach! 

I still never thought about actually trying to sell any of the things that I made, but encouraged by friends and relatives, I decided to give it a try.  So... The Echo Location was born.  I will use this blog to take you through some of the crafts we offer.  There will be new ideas and patterns and information about how I came up with them, as well as old, time tested ideas and patterns that I have found interesting.  Some will be simple and some a little less so. 


Over the years, I have learned to crochet and macrame, and use all kinds of power tools.  I don't have one specific area that I like the most, so for now I'm going to incorporate them all into our store and see how it goes.  This blog is intended to reflect all of those disciplines. 

Please feel free to comment and make suggestions as to things you'd like to see.  Don't forget to tell your friends about us!