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I got the plans for this Shadowbox Nativity set from a friend and coworker who let me copy this by placing the pieces
on a copier. Then I had to trace them to get lines clean enough to follow. I've made a few of these in two different sizes
and two shades: walnut with oak figures and cherry with maple figures. The large size is about 22 inches wide ($45); the small
one is about 17 inches ($40).
This is my favorite. It's an 18 piece set with almost every kind of wood in my shop, from the walnut stable with
the osage orange star and butternut door to the purpleheart, yellowheart, and pecan nigra wise men. Mary, Joseph,
and the manger are made of very old osage orange, given to me as a log by my uncle. Two of the camels are lacewood
from Africa. The third is red oak. The shepards are black locust, sassafras, and maple. Their sheep are
pecan nigra, black locust, american beech, and the ram is quarter-sawn oak. the donkey is slightly spalted butternut.
The really different thing about this set is that all the pieces are stored in the stable as shown below. The closed
set is identical to that shown above, except that the stable and door are white ash. They sell for $40 and can be made
with different woods.
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 There was a church that had a beggar (not really - click here to read the story) who was not afraid to ask for things for the good of her church. Every church needs
a few like that. Anyway, I work with this beggar-lady at our day jobs and to make a long story short, she traded some
sycamore wood for a few of these Nativity scenes.
The thing is, it was her Shadowbox Nativity I copied, so I really owed her a favor and this was it. We developed
the design together during lunch one day, and I went home that night, got some thin wood, and made one of these. I think
the first one was oak.
The sycamore version came later when it was discovered a very large sycamore tree outside the beggar-lady's church was
dying. It was being cut down and offered to the parishioners for firewood. I had never worked with sycamore before,
or even seen it as useable lumber, so when the begger-lady offered me a few large pieces I jumped at the chance. From
there, it was just natural that some of that wood ended up in this Nativity scene.
I think I forgot to tell you the name of the church -
- what else could I have made with this wood?
For more Nativity Scenes, take a look at the Christmas Ornaments page. Click the link here: Christmas Ornaments
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