Christmas Presents #3 – Elephant phone holder

This is the third present I made myself this year, including this tea light candle holder for my best friend, and this cat mobile phone stand for my mum. Having made a mobile phone stand for Mum, I decided to make one for Dad too and as elephants are his favourite animals, it was not too much of a challenge to think of what to make! I found an image of an elephant shaped phone holder, made a sketch plan and then transferred the image onto an MDF template. I could probably just skip this step and transfer it straight onto the actual wood, but as I am hoping to open an online shop selling these at some point in the future (when I get good enough), I figure having a template that will make it quick and easy to draw around will be really quite useful!

I transferred the template onto some scrap pine and then cut it out using my jigsaw. It was a little fiddly to do the trunk due to the tight curve on the inside, so I switched to my coping saw for a little more control.

Although I have quite a few different tools in my gradually increasing workshop (also known as the back of the garage at present pending a house move!), I do not yet have any sort of electric tool for sanding the INSIDE of curves. I do have a wedge shaped electric detail sander, which is really useful for flat and slightly curved surfaces, but really I need a random orbit sander or a belt sander for larger surfaces, and some small sanding bits for a dremel or drill for fine detailed sanding. But instead I used a lot of my own energy and spent a lot of time smoothing out the curved trunk with lots of small pieces of sand paper!

I used a damp cloth to raise the grain and then re-sanded the elephant all over, taking my time to ensure a smooth finish.

The finished elephant is very stable and does a good job holding a phone. Dad seemed to really love it when I gave it to him and I’m proud of how it turned out. The more things I make, the more experience I get, the better things will hopefully start to become! 🔨