One of the presents to our girls this Christmas was a set of wooden people (“peeps”) that Lonnie and I worked on together. It was a really fun project! I had first seen something like them on Etsy, and showed Lonnie. He liked the idea and decided to try it out in his shop. He spent a lot of time researching, practicing, finding the right wood (he ended up using the wood from the cherry tree we cut down last year!), and finally crafting 9 little people, each a different size and shape. He sanded them with steel wool until they were super smooth and ready for painting.
My job was the painting. Lonnie had also researched this and we went with non-toxic watercolors, which we had on hand already (a bunch of those plastic paint sets from back when I was teaching, in fact!). We decided on a simple style and I did some practicing, then started in on the final products. After that was done, Lonnie added several (well 6) layers of shellac (also non-toxic — since Elsie and Delia still put stuff in their mouths we wanted to be really careful about that!).
Practice people (note the head tower, ha ha)
We did encounter a few roadbumps — one of the types of wood Lonnie bought was too wet and cracked, making the toys unusable. The watercolor paint was kind of a challenge — no white to mix with, not great for adding layers on top of layers. The practice people were a different kind of wood that sucked the paint in differently — on the real ones some of the paint went on too thick and would smear, even when dry, so I had to wash some of it off and use it more like a “stain” than a paint.
Final versions in process, with the testers observing
But! I think they turned out great! It was really fun to have a shared project to work on for the girls. 5 of them are our family (Lonnie with a ponytail and beard, me with glasses and a bandana, Emma with pigtails and barrettes, Elsie and Delia are the babies with hats) and 5 are non-specific “friends”. The girls love them and I can’t wait to see them play with them more!
Our Family
The whole bunch
Ponytail detail on Lonnie and Emma peeps!
Opening the peeps on Christmas day!
Delia looking at Daddy peeps
Elsie’s peeps giving hugs
Our wooden people crew. Fun!
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wow! really cool peeps. Superior work, it does appear!
You could open up an Etsy shop with this kind of awesomeness! I saw one where the owner would make little wooden people as wedding cake toppers and they looked just like the bride and groom. Too cute!
Seriously awesome. Love ‘em!
These are so cute, and well crafted. Just right for little hands. A family heirloom.
These look awesome!