How we make wooden toys

Hyrum and I laugh every time someone comments on one of Claire's toys and that person says what an awesome job Hyrum did. It reminds me of this joke, about how men bbq.

This will show how we made the bird teether.

Hyrum starts by drawing the design on a piece of paper. He then takes 10-15 minutes and uses his jigsaw to cut the shape out of an oak board from home depot, something like this. Then he's done. He give me the piece of wood, looking like this-
I then use a small electric sander to sand the bird. I use a piece of paper and hand sand the inside circle as well as any other parts the electric one couldn't get very well. Then I get the whole bird slightly wet (I usually just dip my fingers in water and rub the water all over). This raises the grain and makes it rough again. I wait for it to dry, and then I use a fine grit piece of sandpaper and hand sand the bird again. Rinse and repeat (around 5-6 times). This way, when little mouths are all over the toy, it doesn't raise the grain anymore and cause rough spots for baby. At the end, it looks like this-
I made a sealer to protect the wood and keep it looking it nice. Since Claire would be chewing all over this, I wanted it to be safe for her. I mixed 3 parts beeswax and 1 part flaxseed oil, and rubbed it all over. I put it in the oven on low heat (between 170 and 200 degrees) for a few hours. I let it cool, and then did it again. I rub the stuff on it occasionally since then also, maybe once every month or two. It gives the wood a nice golden color-
Finally, I add the embellishments. I decided how to attach the ribbon, cut it to length, burned the edges so they wouldn't fray, and hand sewed them together. For the feet, I made lots of practice ones until I like the result! Those were hand sewed as well. I cut up strips of a sunchips bag, rolled them up, and stuck them in the toes. Then I sewed the feet to the strip going through the hole. Done!

Claire LOVES the feet and they get to looking pretty grungy, so I regularly have to wash them at the sink. It's so fun watching her love the toys we make her!