Rocking Cradle (+coffee table): Violet the Dragon baby

(the shelf when not glued together as I didn’t take an after picture of it yet)

Hi all, my first real post here as I posted some in progress pictures for this awhile ago.

I want to welcome Violet, a year of the dragon baby into my extended family. Violet was born earlier this month to my sister-in-law and I began making this cradle for her after the pregnancy was announced.

Since a rocking cradle has a limited lifespan of usefulness I decided to make the cradle so it could be used as a coffee table once outgrown, and here is the result. I got the design idea from the “So-Ro” cradle that I found online and with the help of my friend’s dad who actually has a workshop we made this cradle.

The woods are purpleheart, walnut, plywood birch for the bottom, and some magnolia that I saved from a tree cut down at my grandpa’s house. It was finished using only butcher block oil as it was the only sealer I could find that said anything about being non-toxic as it was safe for food preparation and as babies like to chew on things I thought it was the best choice. The inside of the cradle is 18” x 33”, and the oval is 23” x 46” if I am remembering right.

Originally the dragon inlay was done because I wanted to do some inlay after looking at other’s work here at LJs, and there was an ugly knot that needed covering. I did they dragon with a scroll saw and the egg was inlayed using a whiteside inlay kit with my own template. The best part about the inlay is how it relates to the babies name and zodiac. They matched up with her name and date after I did the inlay.

The walnut trim on this turned out nice, but getting .25” x .25” sticks with a quarter inch round to fit together nicely was a tedious chore and I will probably put trim on differently next time.

Thanks for looking and I look forward to your thoughts on it.

Brian

-- Brian