I spent some time this past weekend making some Christmas ornaments. To begin, I started off by cutting squares of 1/8″ maple and bloodwood. I then glued them together cross grain, to create basically a 2-ply plywood that would be much stronger than just a single layer or matching grain lines.

I then found the center, and carved the designs into the wood at 45 degrees to the grain, meaning that the “hanging” hole in the ornament won’t tear out.

The snowflake I cut clear through, and while it looks pretty, it was wasn’t as obvious that it was two-color, which was the look I was going for. So, for the other ornaments, I milled half-way through instead and I much prefer how they turned out.

What do you think? Which do you like better?