All twenty-two awaiting final finish

I divide my woodwork up into three areas: fine work, practical work, and whimsy.  This past weekend, I managed to touch projects in all three areas. Working on these small jewelry pendants is pure whimsy.  The biggest hurdle to completing these is the final sanding, because its purely sandpaper-in-hand work. I haven't really figured out a way to speed this up or mechanise it. This past week, I've managed to sand about four per evening. Saturday, I finished the last four, and then applied boiled linseed oil to all of them.  Here's a quick shot I took of all 22 pieces, sanded and oiled. 

The pieces are made from hard and soft maple, cherry, apple wood, African mahogany, QS sycamore, what I believe is legacy chestnut, and a few small pieces of (yuck) walnut, along with oakand cherry dowels.  The best aspects of this work is that a) you get to work with a variety of beautiful woods, and b) it's very mindful work.

As soon as the oil cures . . . I'll give them about three more days . . . I'm going to apply a couple coats of MinWax Gloss polyurethane from a rattle can. Then we apply the bales and either a leather lanyard or stirling silver chain.  I'm on target to have them ready in time for the Kirkwood Spring Fling on May 11th, with enough time for a few glamour shots . . hopefully.