Captain America vs Iron Man Lath Art

[Travis]

Howdy all. This is a fun little project I just finished up. This is based on Captain America: Civil War movie that came out (which was awesome, BTW). I made this on my weekly live stream from my shop.

Basically, I wanted to make a Captain America shield and the Iron Man mask as wall art. I decided to create it in an old folk art style called Lath Art. Lath art is best known in the New England states. Artists would take strips of lath (from lath and plaster walls) or recycle old lobster traps to make pictures. They would use the direction of the strips to imply details, perspective, and movement. It’s similar to segmentation as you are only using 1 species of wood. But it’s also similar to intarsia because you are using grain direction and cutting out sections to fit together. But the image is usually flat without use of carving (but there are exceptions).  It's also known to be pretty rustic and usually has rural or nautical themes.

Anyway, I have always admired this kind of folk art, so I thought I’d take a stab at it. I cut my strips of lath from 2x4. I kept everything rough sawn. I also roughed up the edges of the lath. I create sheets of lath by gluing it to craft paper. I colored the pieces with craft paint. The metallic areas, I used silver and gold leaf to add a bit of shine. Then to distress the piece, I sanded away the paint in the high spots. Then I covered the whole thing in a medium colored stain and wiped it away. It gives the illusion of 70+ years of dirt and grime (Captain America is from the 40’s). Once the stain dried, I added a paste wax for protection and to give it a dull luster. It also makes it feel nice in the hands.

It was a fun learning experience. I really liked the process and I’m going to experiment with more lath art in the very near future.

This was made during my Live stream. Each Sunday at 1pm PST, I stream for about 3 hours from my workshop. You can hang out and chat, ask questions, and watch me work. I’ve seen a few SSV members stop in and say hi. I love chatting and hanging out. It’s not always scroll saw stuff, but I do a lot with the scroll saw, depending on the project. I’ve already done a Deadpool scroll saw portrait on the stream, which was a lot of fun too. I hope you stop by. You can find my live stream here.  If you miss the live version, I think the replay video is available for about 2 weeks.
 

 

 

 

[MrsN]

This is so cool!!! What a great project!

[don watson]

Nice to see it on the fence Travis

[MTCowpoke22]

Very Cool.

[Denny Knappen]

That is sure very cool.  I cans see using old barn wood or siding for such a project.

[Ron Johnson]

Interesting. First I've heard of Lath Art and like the process of creating the final product. Very well done Travis.

[DWSUDEKUM]

Travis that is a very neat project.  Great job on it.  Thanks for sharing this with us.

 

DW

[Scrolling Steve]

Awesome project !.....Love the weathered look!.....Nice.

[newfie]

Thats 2 cool pieces Travis thanks for showing us.

[Dave Monk]

Travis, That type of art is totally new to me. I really like it. dave

[penquin]

What a great craft idea and way to use stuff sitting around.  Like it a lot.  Thank you for bringing it to us.

jim

penquin

[Lucky2]

One nice thing about making these types of art, is that you can paint the pieces before they are put in place. That makes painting so easy, it's almost a joke. You don't have to worry about painting outside the lines, because you cut to the line by painting the laths in advance.

Len

[lawson56]

Travis,they are Awesome   I have never heard of Lath art either,but it looks like you have it Mastered.

[TripleJScroller]

Awesome!  This is the first I've ever heard of Lathe art, but I like it already...lol   And it was a great movie too!