Rodney Frost - Making Whirligigs, Whimsies, & Folk Toys

T he ability to move things around in your head just as if you had them in your hands is a very useful skill. You use this ability when youre looking at a map, figuring out where to put furniture, deciding how to pack things in a box or car or suitcase, and, of course, making something. Yes, doing something in your head first is very handy because then, when you come to do the real thing, youll be ready and will enjoy what to many is a harrowing task.

These heritage puzzles will give you a chance to practice and test yourselfnot only when you read about them but also when you make them, and, of course, when you try to put them back together! The furniture puzzle and variations of it have been around for years. Sometimes you can find parts of the furniture puzzle in old dollhouses.

When I was a little guy, my grandmother had a lot of dollhouse furniture that I played with, and it wasnt until recently, when I started making these toys, that I realized why the chairs had a little curve on the back leg. See for yourself.

The lumberjack puzzle can get people flummoxed until they know the trick to putting it back together. Its really a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle.

Heres the trick to solving the lumberjack puzzleeight of the pieces will have at least one flat side. One piece will not have any flat sides. Take this piece and find the pieces that will fit onto each side of it. You now have a group of three. Assemble the other two groups of three. Slide the groups together.

Practice. Pratice. Practice.

Then invite your friends to try!

Take a block of wood about the size shown here.

Make a template of the shape (youll want to make more than one set!)

Saw out on the line.

Turn the cut-out piece on its side and cut out the shape of the chair.

Cut number three.

Cut number four.

Now do the same thing with the other chair. A light sanding, and its finished!

Take a stick of wood about the size shown here.

Draw on the puzzle lines. Notice that they are hooked, like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.

At one end, mark where you will be cutting off the waste part.

Notice how the lines are continued beyond the waste line to where you will be drilling the holes.

There is, of course, no need to mark the ends, your saw will do that automatically. Ive just drawn them to give you a complete picture.

Drill holes at the ends of all the cutting lines. Make them about inch for convenience.

Saw the lines. The holes are there to help you get the saw blade out again.

With this system, the pieces of the puzzle are held together until the waste end is removed.

Once all the cuts are made, cut off the waste end.

Sand lightly.

After the pieces are cut, you will have nine different-shaped sticks.

D own the street where I live is a school. I can hear the bell ringing to tell every-one when the day starts and when the recess is over.

The window next to my paint bench looks out on the street and I can see the kids going to school. Painting toys takes my mind away from clock time, and I dont know if Ive been working a while or not, so when I saw Taylor, my nine-year-old friend from a few doors down, walking by, I thought it was earlier than it was. She was enjoying the summer morning, gazing at the trees, watching the birds, smiling at the sun. Then I noticed the clockten to ten!

Next day, same thing.

Taylor is a thoughtful, particular young lady who runs her own life, but when later that week Taylor turned up at my back door about forty minutes after I heard the school bell ring to end the lunch break, claiming that there was no school that afternoon, I decided to tease her a bit!

I have a little machine here, I say, that knows the truth. Its a little notched stick with a propeller at the end. When the propeller turns one way, I tell her, it says that you are telling the truththe other way says well, the opposite!

Taylor looks at me skeptically. You dont believe me? I ask. Then lets test it. Are we talking to each other? She nods. I rub the stick with a dowel. The propeller turns clockwise. Yes, we are!

Is the sky red with purple spots? She laughs. I rub the stick, the propeller turns the other way. No!

Now the big question.

Okay, Taylor, is it true that there is no school this afternoon? She nods, and I start rubbing the stick back and forth. Slowly at first, then faster and faster. The propeller starts to turn counter-clockwise! Aha! The whimmy diddle does not lieif there is no school this afternoon, then the sky is red with purple dots!

The whimmy diddle does not lie. Make one, youll see!

Cut out a propeller from some thin wood and drill a hole in the center. Get it as evenly balanced as you can. Put the propeller firmly onto the end of the stick with a nail.