Name tag rack - Gothic

Our church, Saint Clements Episcopal in Saint Paul, recently encouraged everyone to wear a name tag during coffee hour. I was asked to make a rack to hold the magnetic tags. I wanted to make something that was sympathetic to our church’s English country church style, and something a little more than rectangular panels. This is what I came up with. There are three panels (the Trinity, you know), each 1/2” red oak plywood framed in red oak. The frames are 1 1/2” thick, glued up from 3/4” stock, and the sections are jointed together with mortise and tenons. The frames are glued into the center post with mortise and tenon joints, and the panels are glued into the frames. I made a steel spider to reinforce the bottom connections. Trying to get all the dimensions of the separate frames the same was tough when I wasn’t sure exactly what the finished dimensions of the curved pieces would be until I dry fit everything. The name tag holding strips are 1/8” x 1/2” steel that was wire brushed and then finished with a coat of BLO.

Overall, it was a fun project, and people at church like it a lot :)