Since working on the Maine Lobster Buoy Adirondack chairs for WHRL’s Chair-ity Auction, I’ve been in a buoy frame of mind. I started thinking about a buoy-themed tree for WHRL’s Christmas Tree Festival.

I rummaged through Paul’s scrap wood pile a found some used 1×3 boards. One edge of the board was covered in old paint, the other weathered and raw edge wood. Paul ran the boards through his saw and trimmed them down to 1×1 pieces. From there, I ran them through the chop saw, cutting them into 3″ and 3.5″ pieces.

With card stock, I created two different templates for the buoy tops.

I traced these angles onto all of the pieces before using Paul’s bandsaw to cut the edges (left). It’s fun to have a hubby with cool tools. Once I had all of my pieces cut, I smoothed out the edges on the belt sander (right).

I chose a palette of colors and painted a base coat.  I tried painting some designs onto the wooden buoys free-hand but didn’t like the results.

I resorted to cutting strips of painter’s tape to outline the design.

My first attempt allowed the paint to bleed under the tape.

Hannah shared a tip she saw online; paint along the tape’s edge with the base color.

When the base color dried, I painted in the final color. This approach worked much better at leaving me with somewhat clean lines. Before the paint hardened, I peeled the tape off.

And on I went spending the last two weekends on the porch happily painting 90 little wood buoys. I ended up with six sets of 15 designs.

Once painted, I lightly sanded the painted buoys to distress them and then finished them with a coat of polyurethane.

I threaded fifteen buoys onto a length of jute twine, spacing them 3.5″ apart.

Before and after each wooden buoy, I tied a knot on either side of each one to keep it in position.

These rustic lobster buoys are the first ingredient for my Maine Lobster Buoy-themed Christmas tree. I have three months to figure out other ornaments and elements that will make this tree sparkle.