Simple Wooden Pendent Necklace for a Wonderful Mom

So my mom loves llama's, not really sure why but she does. With her birthday coming up I wanted to make something really special that would show how important she really is to me. Immediately I thought about something llama related and my mom loves jewelry so than I decided to make a llama necklace. I choose to do a llama but you can obviously do something different. Recognizing that I'll be giving as detailed instruction as I can without making them so specifically as so they cannot be applied to any other shape you choose

Step 1: Sketches

So you don't have to do a llama, you can do whatever you like or find cool so just keep that in mind. A good size of wood to base your pendent in is a 3 1/4 by 2 3/4 inches with a thickness of about 1/2 and inch. It may look thick but don't worry it'll make sense at the end.

Sketch out what you want your pendent to look like within the confines of the 3 1/4 by 2 3/4 box
Once you've got the sketch you can either use your drawing or find a similar picture online

Step 2: Prep

This project is not that complicated so you're not going to need too much to get the job done.

Materials:

3 1/4 in. by 2 3/4 piece of wood
Wood Stain (optional)
Necklace Cord (I used leather but you can use what ever you want)

Tools:

Jigsaw or Bandsaw (which ever you have)
Sander/ Sandpaper (100 & 150 grit )
Rotary Tool
Drill
Latex gloves (for staining)
Paint brush

Step 3: Make the Pendent

So once you've got all your tools ready and you've picked out your design the first step is to transfer the image to the wood.

I printed out my image, cut it out, and then traced it on the wood. However if you feel more comfortable free handing it feel free to do so as well
Next grab your jigsaw or mosey on over to your band-saw and cut out your pendent. Take it slow, especially if you have small extremities as they will break off fairly easily. I suggest it yours using a jigsaw use a blade made for cutting curves, it will make your life much easier.

This should give you the rough cut out of your pendent

Step 4: Refining and Sanding

Now that you've got the rough shape of the pendent you can work on shaping it into the final product

At this point I started using my Dremel Rotary tool, I recommend that if you can, use one, it will be very helpful. I
Basically your just going to follow the the shape you drew in the beginning, sanding off what the jigsaw didn't cut until you get the final desired shape
From there start sanding, (this is when I switched to my palm sander) since the pendent was so small I didn't want to use low grit sandpaper. I started by sanding with 100 grit until it was smooth, on both the face and the sides of the pendent. Then I moved to 150 to make it smoother as well as round off the edges.
To round off edges all you need to do, is with the sander in hand, rotate your wrist left to right and vice versa back and forth. This will start wearing down the sharp edges, eventually causing them it become rounded.

Step 5: Drill and Stain

You'll notice above that in the image that shows me drilling a hole for the cord, the pendent is already stained. DO NOT STAIN BEFORE YOU DRILL THE HOLE. That was my bad, I completely forgot to drill the hole before staining so I had to do it after I had already stained. Don't be stupid like me.

Ok, so depending on the shape of your pendent you're going to want to find a place to drill the hole that has enough strength that it won't break off while drilling. I drilled mine through the head of my llama so that when worn it would hang down nicely without making it turn in weird directions. So figure out where you want your hole and drill it.
Next we stain, my moms favorite color is red so I used a red stain. Obviously you can do whatever stain you choose. Put your latex gloves and on a plastic bag or in a small disposable plastic container pour in your stain. From there its pretty self-explanatory, make sure to apply the stain evenly on the pendent as well as applying multiple coats for a nice crispy look :).