The Golden Rule Tree
I originally designed the tree for my friend Rev’d Ken Johnson of St Giles Church in Sandiacre – the image in REToday Summer 2021 shown below is of the first prototype that I made for him.
The tree was designed to be handy sized for children to hold as an educational item. Once we had the concept of tree and words, we then had the idea that we could cut out the words in “quote” bubbles like a sort of jigsaw the children would shake them out of the tree and put them back in in the right places and learn the golden rule(s) at the same time –
I have found Steamed Birch and Ash veneers look very good for the face of the tree The wood in the pictures attached is Oak veneer. I’ll take more pictures and post them. Meanwhile if you’d like to know more about the Golden Rule Tree please get in touch
In small quantities (under 5) they are £5.54 plus postage and packing each with discounts available for larger quantities.
Hi, Welcome to the Christian Crafts gallery. Thanks for dropping in! I hope you’ll enjoy a tour of some of the things I’ve made – Everything I make is for sale, and if there is anything that you like here in the gallery that you can’t find in the shop please get in touch – there’s a contact form at the bottom of the page or feel free to call or email me directly
15 Stations of the Cross
Here is the biggest job I’ve done to date – a set of 15 Stations of the Cross for St Philips Church in Chaddesden. Produced in commemoration of the husband of a Parishioner & member of the congregation. It was such an honour to be asked to do this. I was in such a rush to take them over to the church that I forgot to photograph station 2 – but I did deliver it!
Station 1 Condemned to death Station 3 Jesus falls first time Station 4 Mary Station 5 Simon Station 6 Veronica Station 7 Jesus Falls for the 2nd Time Station 8 The Women of Jerusalem Station 9 Jesus falls for the 3rd time Station 10 Jesus is stripped of his clothes Station 11 Jesus is nailed to the cross Station 12 Jesus dies on the cross Station 13 Jesus is taken down from the cross Station 14 Jesus is laid to rest Station 15 Jesus is Risen
The Lord’s Prayer in the shape of a Cross
Quite a lot of what I do is design and produce Crosses made of the words of the Lord’s prayer in it’s most common varieties, is if there is a particular wording of the Lord’s Prayer that you learned at Church, School or Sunday School I’ve probably made it both in bordered and unbordered forms in Dark and Light Wood too.
Take a look through this gallery of the crosses I’ve made. I’m only showing the light wood crosses here. I do all of these in dark wood too. There are 6 main wordings and I’ve made bordered and unbordered versions of each 12 different crosses 24 if you count the wood type! If you know the name of the version of the Lord’s Prayer you learned, scroll round to it. If you don’t know – here’s a chance to find out…
Protestant versions ;
- 1662 Anglican Book of Common Prayer (BCP)
- 1772 Anglican BCP
- 1928 Methodist and Episcopal Church of the United States BCP
- 1988 Enlish Language Liturgical Consultation (ELLC) Alternative Service Book (ASB)
Catholic versions
- 1662 Traditional
- 2019 Pope’s new wording
1662 Traditional BCP Lord’s Prayer Cross 1662 Traditional BCP Lord’s Prayer Cross 1772 Alternative Service Book Lord’s Prayer Cross 1772 Alternative Service Book Lord’s Prayer Cross 1928 ASB Lord’s Prayer Cross 1928 ASB Lord’s Prayer Cross 1988 ELLC Lord’s Prayer Cross 1988 ELLC Lord’s Prayer Cross Traditional Catholic Lord’s Prayer Cross Traditional Catholic Lord’s Prayer Cross 2019 Catholic Lord’s Prayer Cross 2019 Catholic Lord’s Prayer Cross
When you take into account the fact that each of the 12 versions of the cross can be supplied on their own unmounted or mounted to one of four backings – light wood, dark wood, Oak veneer or Slate there’s a possible 60 variations to choose from – and that’s before you take alternative sizes into account! Anything is possible from the A4 Standard size to almost A2!
If you’d like something bigger than standard A4 size please get in touch – my designs are vector graphics which means I can blow them up without loss of resolution (unlike a photograph) very cost effectively.
Etched Slates
Wow , Slate. Before I got into working with laser I thought slate was only good for roofing. Then I experimented with a bit to see how it etched letters (very nicely thank you!) then I tried etching a picture into it and that is much harder but the results are quite lovely – like a Black and White photo but not really… Etched writing is super clear and will last forever. Etched picture are a bit more like sketches you know. Just a bit different but lovely to look at AND they last forever too… No mistaking what they are. Check out the stations of the cross in the top carousel
I hand cut my own slate too. That in itself is very satisfying and it means I ‘m not reliant on some expensive mob charging the earth to cut a special size. The biggest slate I have is a whopping 500mm x 375mm and I can cut any size up to that – bigger if I sourced a bigger slate…
Here are of a few of the Christian slates I’ve etched – from Bible verses to pet memorials. I could easily etch the lords prayer directly into slate – I’ll have to do that! The other site I run Handytech makes all sorts of non Christian related slates from direction signage (eco friendly – no plastic etc) to Baby Scans & custom house names – oh yes, baby scans on slate
The prayer station prayer in Beeston Parish Church was done to replace a laminated paper prayer. The brief was to produce the prayer in something more “classy” than laminated paper but not at all ostentatious – It succeeded quite well.
The big heart (it’s 250mm across) was produced for a customer who wanted it for his wife’s birthday. It is pretty special.
Laser carved Psalms and Prayers
The 23rd Psalm is a lovely thing in itself – I’ve taken the words of the psalm and welded them into a single block. I’ve laser carved the block from a single piece of sustainably sourced wood and just like the Lords Prayer Crosses they are things of beauty (and a joy forever)
Take a look at a few;
Other Things
I get asked to make all sorts of things in my Handytech role – some of them are more relevant to the Christiancrafts role such as religious teaching aids and personalised memorial plaques – here are a few. All designed and made by me by request. If there is something you’d like, and you can’t find it anywhere on the website – just get in touch! Some of my best designs are as a result of people asking…
