Popcorn the Elf (Louis, in the French way)
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popcorntheelf.bsky.social
Popcorn the Elf (Louis, in the French way)
@popcorntheelf.bsky.social
450 followers 350 following 220 posts
he/him I hand make wooden toys in Seattle, and will be at Pike Place Market in 2025! Disabled. Polyam. Dad. Granddad. Great Grandad. Former Photog. BS Biology, UNCW 2012. Bird is a verb.

ShackletonAndShanks.etsy.com

TikTok: @ShackletonAndShanks
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popcorntheelf.bsky.social
Just sayin’.
Shop sign reading “50 Days ‘til Christmas”
November 4, 2025 at 6:08 PM
popcorntheelf.bsky.social
Hi, yes, hello.

I’ll be at the Craft Market at Pike Place Market here in Seattle this Monday, 27 October and again on Halloween (COME SEE MY COSTUME!!!) for your holiday gift-giving needs!

#CountdownToChristmas
#HappyHolidays
#PikePlaceMarket
#ShackletonAndShanks
#PopcornTheElf
Wooden shop sign reading “060 Days ‘til Christmas”
October 25, 2025 at 8:05 PM
popcorntheelf.bsky.social
72 days until Santa starts his ride!

I’ve got train cars on the bench this morning, a special project (Take II), a Widow, and various and sundry miscellany.

#Woodworking
#WoodenToys
#SantasWorkshop
#SeattleAnnex
#PopcornTheElf
Photo is of my very busy workbench, with a sign reading “72 days ‘til Christmas’
October 13, 2025 at 4:29 PM
popcorntheelf.bsky.social
Morning Cabeese
Four wooden cabeese (the plural of caboose, obviously) in progress sit on a well-loved and well-used workbench with diffuse morning light from a window behind, and a mortising chisel in the foreground.
July 31, 2025 at 4:09 PM
popcorntheelf.bsky.social
I’ve been a little busy the last few days since I’ve returned from visiting family on the East Coast. Tomorrow is my first day back at the market. #Woodworking #WoodenToys #Yoyos #Tops #Gyroscopes #PikePlaceMarket #Seattle
Four gyroscopic wooden tops (3 Olivewood - 1 Maple & Purpleheart) sit beside six wooden yo-yos of various combinations of woods.
April 8, 2025 at 2:10 AM
popcorntheelf.bsky.social
Well, actually… 😂😂😂
“Ceci n’est pas une pomme”, self portrait. Best of show, 2011 All Student Art Show, UNCW. A brown-haired white man with blue eyes and a goatee faces the camera chin in palms, with a green apple perched on his head, against a plain gray background in an homage to René Magritte, Belgian Surrealist painter from the first half of the 20th century.
March 23, 2025 at 2:56 PM
popcorntheelf.bsky.social
Just hung it on the wall. #Woodworking #Veritas #HandTools #HandSaw #LeeValleyTools #ArtForArtsSake
My new saw hangs on the wall on a finished piece of live-edge wood, with a little label styled like the ones in an art museum. The label reads, “Imma Cut a Birch” Louis Shackleton Veritas 12tpi Crosscut Tenon Saw on Red Alder 2025 Because I’m a funny birch.
February 4, 2025 at 7:38 PM
popcorntheelf.bsky.social
Fortunately I got this before Tiny Hands and Muskhole’s tariffs hit. My best hand tools are made in Canada, so President Fuckface is already going to start costing me money. #Veritas 🇨🇦 This is a crosscut tenon saw, and I’m going to need the rip tenon saw soon, too. #Woodworking #HandTools
#Veritas crosscut tenon saw sits on my workbench. I’ve been working around not having good hand saws for a lot of stuff for a few years now, but have a project on the bench with complex compound angle cuts I can’t make without one of these. I’ll need the rip version as some point, too.
February 3, 2025 at 10:33 AM
popcorntheelf.bsky.social
Our table at #PikePlaceMarket yesterday, our second day. Given the time of year and the weather, we did ok. #Woodworking #SmallBusiness #Seattle
A market table full of wooden toys for sale.
January 9, 2025 at 11:01 PM
popcorntheelf.bsky.social
I made a few more yo-yos to take to the market on Monday. #PikePlaceMarket #SmallBusiness
22 yo-yos of varying sorts and made of assorted woods sit on a bookshelf in the stock room we call The Toy Box, surrounded by handmade wooden toys of other kinds.
January 5, 2025 at 4:46 AM
popcorntheelf.bsky.social
Yo-yos in progress. A week from today we plan on debuting our toys at Pike Place Market. Gotta get ‘em done! #Woodworking #Toys #PikePlaceMarket
A big ol pile of round and octagonal flat pieces of wood of varying colors and patterns, each with a hole drilled through its center, sits on my bench in front of two stacked slabs of maple which I’m fixing to turn into a couple of cribbage boards.
December 30, 2024 at 9:48 PM
popcorntheelf.bsky.social
I can’t even tell you how pretty I think this Padaukadunk is! It’s among 5 yo-yos I just dropped in the Etsy shop for resupplying the listing. Also a Melody, a Speed Racer, an Oreyoyo, and a Bullseye. #Woodworking #Gifts #Toys

shackletonandshanks.etsy.com/listing/1822...
Deep red-brown streaks of heartwood grain accent the bright red-orange and yellow-orange wood of this Padauk yo-yo. Center of the yo-yo is a shiny chrome cap, which caps the end of a hidden axle and bearing that gives the yo-yo great action. Deep red-brown streaks of heartwood grain accent the bright red-orange and yellow-orange wood of this Padauk yo-yo. Center of the yo-yo is a shiny chrome cap, which caps the end of a hidden axle and bearing that gives the yo-yo great action.
December 23, 2024 at 6:08 PM
popcorntheelf.bsky.social
I’m an anthropomorphizer of the most incorrigible sort, so whenever I’m ripping Padauk on my radial arm saw, my shop vac always seems to look like R2D2 been into that good Orange Spice. Not that street crap, but the real *primo* shit, y’know? #Woodworking #DroidParty
With freshly ripped strips of Padauk in the foreground, my orange and black Ridgid brand shopvac is covered in bright orange sawdust.
December 21, 2024 at 6:25 PM
popcorntheelf.bsky.social
Two more yo-yos sold last night, shipping today! Melody (Canarywood) and Padaukadunk! #Woodworking #Woodturning #StockingStuffers
Two yo-yos sit on my desk. One made of beautiful yellow streaked Canarywood, and the other of gorgeous red-orange Padauk. The lighting is crap because it’s 6AM and I haven’t had enough coffee to care yet. Two yo-yos sit on my desk. One made of beautiful yellow streaked Canarywood, and the other of gorgeous red-orange Padauk. The lighting is crap because it’s 6AM and I haven’t had enough coffee to care yet.
December 21, 2024 at 2:22 PM
popcorntheelf.bsky.social
That is some pretty Padauk right there, I don’t care who y’are. It’s going to make some absolutely gorgeous yo-yos. #Woodworking #Toymaker #Seattle And don’t forget our first day at #PikePlaceMarket will be Monday, January 6th!
Two pieces of freshly milled Padauk, each about 30” long, 5” wide, and 3/4” thick, sit atop my thickness planer, showing off the beautiful orange hues in their grain.
December 20, 2024 at 11:26 PM
popcorntheelf.bsky.social
Sold an Oreyoyo this morning! I love giving my yo-yos fun names. Oreyoyo is Walnut and Maple. #Woodworking

Find them for now at ShackletonAndShanks.etsy.com

Starting in January, find us at #PikePlaceMarket here in Seattle! January 6 will be our first day at that iconic landmark!
A wooden yo-yo sits on my desk. It’s Walnut on the outside and Maple on the inside of each half, resembling a chocolate cookie with a creamy filling. Names for other yo-yos I make include Speed Racer, Cherry Drop, Melody, Maple Classic, and Padaukadunk. A wooden yo-yo sits on my desk. It’s Walnut on the outside and Maple on the inside of each half, resembling a chocolate cookie with a creamy filling. Names for other yo-yos I make include Speed Racer, Cherry Drop, Melody, Maple Classic, and Padaukadunk.
December 19, 2024 at 5:06 PM
popcorntheelf.bsky.social
It’s been a minute since my bench didn’t have any projects or #WIP on it. It’s nice to have a reset, but we’re back to making more catapults. They’re selling like hotcakes! #Woodworking #Woodfeed #Woodshop
A long view down my pine-top workbench, showing only the tools that live on it there, the tools in their racks on the walls and various decor of my shop. My shooting board says, “Just because my shooting board is straight, that doesn’t mean I am” Ask me about the Popcorn.
December 13, 2024 at 6:19 PM
popcorntheelf.bsky.social
I’m finally finishing up these 4 locomotives! They kept getting pushed to the back burning as other toys needed priority, but after weeks and weeks, they’re nearly done! Whew! It’ll be nice to have them off the bench! #Woodworking #Woodfeed
Four wooden toy locomotives rest on their sides on my bench, their cab rooves clamped on while the glue dries. Once the rooves dry, a final coat of Walrus Oil will finish them off. Fun fact, Walrus Oil contains 0% oil of walrus. Also, a portion of their profits go to environmental causes.
December 12, 2024 at 8:52 PM
popcorntheelf.bsky.social
Man, Christmas is upon us! LESS THAN 2 WEEKS!! #CountdownToChristmas #SantasWorkshop #SeattleAnnex #PopcornTheElf #WoodenToys #Seattle #Woodworking #Woodfeed
December 11, 2024 at 5:11 PM
popcorntheelf.bsky.social
If you see this post a dinosaur!

Do wooden ones count?
A wooden toy T-rex I made from hard maple, with red eyes of Padauk sits on my workbench, smiling.
December 8, 2024 at 9:20 PM
popcorntheelf.bsky.social
I suppose it was a good thing I stopped what I was doing and started this cohort of 18 catapults when I saw the stock was low. Not only did we sell out, we’ve sold 3 from this batch before they were even done! #WoodenToys #SantasWorkshop #SeattleAnnex #Woodworking #Woodfeed #WIP
16 unfinished wooden toy catapults sit on my workbench. 2 had shipped yesterday of this cohort of 18, one of these was ordered in the wee hours this morning and will ship tomorrow. If a shop that makes handmade wooden toys has to have a problem, I suppose “continually running out of stock” isn’t the worst one to have. Also, eat the fucking rich.
December 8, 2024 at 6:55 PM
popcorntheelf.bsky.social
Finally through the main assembly phase on these catapults. Nearly done with this whole-ass artillery battery. Hopefully I can get back to those locomotives soon!
Seventeen mostly-completed rubber band powered catapults sit on my bench along with various hand and power tools, and 4 nearly-completed steam locomotives collect a thin layer of sawdust in the background, silently pleading to be finished and sent to forever homes to bring happiness and joy to homes around the country.
December 7, 2024 at 3:22 AM
popcorntheelf.bsky.social
THIS IS HAPPENING!!!!!
On my workbench, a yellow pin of a hand painting the word “handmade” across a banner, with the words “PIKE PLACE MARKET CRAFT” around the edge. It was given to me yesterday at the orientation for the daystall craft market.
December 7, 2024 at 2:56 AM
popcorntheelf.bsky.social
Cleaning up the shoulders on these catapults is not the most exciting use of a bench chisel. But the soft, unforgiving pine forces me to work on my lighter-touch technique. I tend to have a heavy hand. The practice pays off when I’m doing finer work, I think. #Woodworking #Woodfeed #WIP #HandTools
The inside corner of a bit of pine, the base of a catapult where the uprights attach, is in an ash bench vise in the foreground, surrounded by fine shavings of pine. In the mid-ground, a 1” bench chisel lies on the bench. Further from viewpoint, and less in focus, lies a stropping paddle. In the background are various stacks of catapult parts, locomotive parts routers, hand tools and a sign reading “21 Days ‘til Christmas”. My Popcorn sign hangs beside that, denoting the nickname my great-granddaughter gave me. My shooting board hangs below that, and reads, “Just because my shooting board is straight, that doesn’t mean I am” #BiPride
December 3, 2024 at 6:22 PM
popcorntheelf.bsky.social
Our catapults are selling so well, I had to stop working on the locomotives (again) to make more! 18 on the bench, should be done tomorrow! #Woodworking #Woodfeed
My bench, full of locomotives in progress and catapults also in progress. A finished wooden, rubber-band powered toy catapult, made of pine with walnut accents.
December 3, 2024 at 1:44 AM