What a beautiful project! and what a swell granddad you are to do it.

The boat-shaped cradle in the film The Secret of Roan Inish was a lovely thing. If yours is anything like that one, I am very jealous of your granddaughter!

When I was tiny, I slept in a cradle my paternal grandfather (who had died long before I was born) had made for my eldest sister. He was a German house carpenter, not a fine woodworker, so my cradle was a plain slope-sided plywood box, stained with redwood stain and decorated only with rounded, raised ends. When my own son was born, I brought it out of retirement and painted it with scenes of the Avebury stone circle (where I had prayed successfully for his conception). Although it's plain, I know that he will use it for his own children someday -- and as beautiful as I imagine yours is going to be, I'm sure your granddaughter and her children will, too.

One question: Will it have outriggers?