Just an Odd Footstool

My wife had a birthday on the first day of the year and I had to come up with something so I made this.

It’s a stylized ladybug footstool that fits beneath her office desk.

She’s been hollering about a place to put her feet.

I made it by cutting off the butt of a Texas cedar log and splitting it in two. I then rough shaped it on the band saw and smoothed it out with an electric hand planer, belt sander, ROS and finally hand sanding to 220g.

The spots I made by drilling down a bit with a couple of Forstner bits and then filling the holes with 2 part 30 minute epoxy that I mixed black spray paint into.
the finish is 4 coats of water based poly with a final coat of Johnson’s paste wax.

To begin with, there were a lot of cracks and some checking from where the log had been cut and not coated. I filled all the cracks and checks I could get into with Gorilla Glue (foaming type) and let that stabilize them, then I dug into each crack and crevice a bit and filled the voids with 2 part epoxy mixed with brown dye. I was trying to enhance the cracks and deformities this way.

It doesn’t have much of a head because there isn’t a lot of room under the desk, what with the computer, shredder, trash can, cookie tins, and other paraphernalia that she stores there.

So there it is… the Lady Bug!

-- Improvise.... Adapt...... Overcome!