Make and decorate your own wooden spinning tops | Michael Cooper-Stachowsky | Skillshare

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Make and decorate your own wooden spinning tops

teacher avatar Michael Cooper-Stachowsky, Creative explorer

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Lessons in This Class

    • 1.

      Introduction

      0:33

    • 2.

      Cutting the pieces

      4:05

    • 3.

      Gluing

      1:59

    • 4.

      Cutting the dowel

      1:48

    • 5.

      Sanding

      2:00

    • 6.

      Drilling the hole

      0:55

    • 7.

      Staining

      1:59

    • 8.

      Dot art decoration

      5:42

    • 9.

      Glazing

      1:58

    • 10.

      Class project

      0:34

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About This Class

Welcome to our class! Get ready for an engaging experience as we guide you through the process of creating your very own spinning tops from scratch.

In this course, we'll cover the fundamental techniques you'll need, including cutting, staining, and decorating. You'll have the opportunity to showcase your creativity by personalizing your spinning tops with unique designs. You'll learn techniques such as using dot art tools to decorate your top and glazing with mod podge. The tops make an excellent gift for children and adults alike, and make a fun little toy for you to play with.

Whether you're experienced or a beginner eager to learn a new skill, this class is designed to inspire you. We will provide practical tips and guidance to ensure your spinning tops are not only visually appealing but also well-balanced for a smooth spinning performance.

Join us and discover the joy of crafting your own wooden spinning tops. This craft is easy enough that children can participate in many steps of the process! We can't wait to embark on it with you!

We'd also like to give a shoutout to Xiathoras, a fellow Skillshare teacher, who has a great class on beginner's dot art that we learned a lot from. You can check it out here.

Meet Your Teacher

Teacher Profile Image

Michael Cooper-Stachowsky

Creative explorer

Teacher

I love learning, and my day job is all about teaching students how to succeed in their careers and in university.  If I can learn it, I want to share my passion with everyone.  

I teach courses in two main areas - productivity and career advice, and art! I know those sound like two very different things, but they are united through my passion to teach and to learn.

I'm a self-taught urban sketcher from Canada.  I've always been interested in sketching and drawing, but I wasn't able to really learn how to do it until I started to focus my creative energy and treat drawing and sketching as a set of problems to solve.  I like to teach the way I learn - I start with a problem, and I give you ideas to work through them and get past them.  Follow me... See full profile

Level: Beginner

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Transcripts

1. Introduction: Welcome to this class and how to make your own spinning tops. Did you know that Topsy the monk, the oldest toys that archaeologists have found. We like to think of them as the original fidget spinners. Using some simple materials and techniques, you can create these pretty and fun toys that you can enjoy. It will take you through everything you need to do to make them. And you can follow along step-by-step. We're excited for you to join us and we'd love to see what you can create in the class project 2. Cutting the pieces: The materials for this step, or a basswood ply board, 2 mm thick. Scissors and exacto knife, a pencil, a ruler, and the template, this we've printed from the class resources section. You need to cut out the shape, cutting along the edges. This is what you'll use later on to trace onto the plywood. Next, you need to make a slit in the center so that you can mark where the center is on the wood. It's important to mark the center as accurately as possible because the more centered or it is, the better your top will spend. Next, you're going to take the board and trace the template onto the board of three times. You'll cut out three of the shapes and glue them together because this will make a slightly thicker, heavier top that spins for longer. You can experiment with using more or less layers of wood when you're making yours. If you start on the edges like IM, you'll need to make fewer cuts altogether. Also. You'll see that I'm going to line up my shapes next to each other so that they share edges that will save cuts as well. Don't forget to mark the center. And it's important to get the center exactly in the middle. So you're top spins. Well, I'll speed this next part up for you so you don't have to watch me trace out the rest at normal speed. Now, take the ruler and the exacto knife and start cutting along the straight edges. Using the ruler can help make straighter edges, especially for longer cuts. You'll see me going over the cut multiple times because the board is thick enough to require it. I'm only going to make you watch me cut one of these out since it goes the same way for all of them. Let's speed this up. And that's it. The next step is to glue it altogether 3. Gluing: In this step, we're going to glue the pieces together. I have wood glue the three pieces that I cut out. I have a sponge and I have two clips. I'm just going to put a glob of glue onto the piece and spread it around with my sponge. I make sure that I cover the whole thing, especially around the edges. Once I haven't even layer, I'll place another piece on top aligning the sides. Now you should make sure the side where you mark the middle ends up on the outside so you can still see the mark. Repeat this step for the last piece. Try to get the edges to line up as much as possible. But if there's a little overlap or they aren't completely even, that's not a big deal because we're going to be sending in the next step. Finally, clamping down on both sides and leave it overnight. You can use a heavy weight as well. If you don't have clamps, just try to make sure the pressure is as even as possible. Now this step is done. We'll leave it overnight and the next step will be to send the edges 4. Cutting the dowel: To make the axis for the top, we'll use a towel to prepare the devil. You'll need sandpaper. Then you'll need bypass printers. They're designed for cutting through small sticks, which makes them ideal for cutting dowels. But you can use an exact knife if you're Dallas thin enough. We're using a quarter-inch towel, but other sizes will work as long as you have the right size drill bit to the next step. You'll also need a ruler and a pencil sharpener. First, you want to measure your dowel. We're going to cut this one to 4 ". Now cut it with the bypass printers. Once it's cut, sand off any rough edges. Next, use the pencil sharpener to put a point on the end of the dowel to help the top to spin better. It's a good idea to leave a bit of a flat surface on the tip. Otherwise, it won't have enough of a surface to balance on. Once you've got that done, you can move on to the next step. 5. Sanding: In this step, we will send the edges of the top two even and smooth them out. You'll need the top that you glued together. And that piece of sandpaper first released the clamps and set them aside. Next, sand the sides or the top. If you had lots of overlap when you glue them together, this process may take awhile, but really just send them until you're happy. We'd like to round the corners as well, but you don't have to. We're using 150 grit sandpaper, but the exact number doesn't matter as long as it smooths it out. In this step is done. Next, we will drill a hole in the center at the top 6. Drilling the hole: In this step, we will drill a hole in the center of our top for the Delta go through. You will need a drill with a drill bit that is the same diameter as your dowel. We're using a quarter-inch scale, so we have a quarter-inch drill bit. You'll need your standard top and we're using a block of scrap what to protect our table. You'll also need your Dowell to test if it please, your top onto the scrap of wood. And make sure when you're drilling, you go right through the center and straight down. Otherwise, the top may wobble as it spins. Check the fit, then give it a test to make sure it's spins nicely. And that step is done. 7. Staining: In this step, we will be putting a base coat of color on top. You'll need some kind of paint or wood stain. Here, I'm using liquid watercolor, since it's nice and vibrant and let the wood grain show through. I also have a brush, some paper to protect my table. The two pieces that will become the top. There's no big technique here. Just brushed the stain on and try to keep your hands as clean as you can. Something to mention about liquid watercolor is that it can reactivate when you're putting the glaze on top. If that happens to you, you may need to touch up the declaration after you seal the top. We've tried oil-based would saints and found they do not have this issue. So that's an option as well, if you'd like to avoid that. In this step is done, let it dry and then we can move on to decorating the top 8. Dot art decoration: In this step, we're going to decorate the top. For this top, we're going to do dot art because we liked the effect that it creates and the top is spinning. You'll need a pencil and a ruler, a palette, some dotting tools. You can get those at a craft store. You'll need the stain top. And then our case, we're using acrylic pouring paints because they're thin enough to work well with the dotting tools, but thick enough to be opaque. We're also using some napkins or paper towels. The first step is to mark out a pattern. Here. We're going to mark out lines from the center to the corners. Then we measure 1 cm increments along the lines which will connect later to get concentric rings will be using those marks to help space the dots evenly. The steps in this lesson can take some time. So between the instructions for each step, we'll speed it up. So you won't have to watch the whole thing in real-time. Once all the lines are drawn and you have your 1 cm increments marked. Connect those marks together so you have lines to help you space your dots. We're using daughter techniques that we learned from the authorise class, beginners dot art from Skillshare. The link to that class is in the course description. And you should really check it out. Especially if you want to create more intricate Dada art. Now, you can choose whichever colors you want. For this one, we're choosing a color scheme centered around blues, silver, and white, so that it's all harmonious. We'll go through a few editing techniques now. To make even sized dots, you have to read up the tool between each dot, like we're doing here. Wipes a tool. Every time you change colors, you'll get progressively smaller dots. If you do not read up the tool between your dots. The tools come in lots of sizes to get different sized dots, but they all work the same way. Here again, we're doing multiple dots after each tip and you'll see the dots getting progressively smaller as we go. This step is done. Remember to erase any visible pencil lines once the paint dries 9. Glazing: In this step, we're going to glaze the top. You'll need your decorated top with a dowel in it. You'll also need something to protect your table. You'll need a brush. And I'm going to use podge for this step. There are many different glazes and you can use, but I'm going to use this dishwasher safe budget. Now the instructions on my iPod say to roll it rather than steer or shake it to avoid getting bubbles and when you mix it. So that's what I'm doing here. The first thing you're going to want to do is pull the dowel out a little bit. Because this podge acts also as a glue that will hold the two pieces together. I'll put a small amount of podge on the dowel. Next, I'll move it back into place. I'm going to continue to glaze the rest at the top. With any type of glaze, you'll probably use multiple coats. With this particular pod. I'll be using three coats, although I'm only going to show you one. And I'll speed it up for you. In the next step, I'll show you the finished product and we'll talk about the class project 10. Class project: Thank you so much for watching this class unmaking spinning tops. Here are some examples of what we were able to do. Now it's your turn in the class project. Try experimenting with different color combinations or even different materials. We're excited to see what you can come up with. Please share your creations in the class project section