Whale of a Christmas Gift

[FrankEV]

I was asked by a client, who had recently purchased two other pieces from me, to make a Breeching Whale cutting to give to her daughter for Christmas who is a ‘Save-The-Whales’ advocate. 

I found the popular Humpback Whale Image, converted it into an 11” x 17” scroll saw pattern and sent it to the client for approval.  Her reply was that what she wanted was an image of a Whale Tail and, in her reply, sent me a photo image of what she was looking for. 

Although the photo was not appropriate to make a Scroll Saw Pattern from, I was able to find a similar image which I, once again, converted into an 11” x 14” scroll saw pattern and sent it to her for approval.  In the text to her (with tongue-in-cheek and an emoji) I said, “If you like I could make the pair!”.  Her reply was, “I like that idea” and proceeded to drop off the deposit I require before starting the cuttings.

Both cuttings were made in 5/32” thick solid core Maple Ply panels and affixed to a 1/4" thick BB Ply backers.  Color was added to both the Backers and the Cut Panels with an Air Bruch using Artist Acrylic Air Brush Paints.  The assembled panels were finished with multiple coats of Deft Clear Gloss Lacquer.

I made my usual 1 3/4” rail frames out of Poplar and applied a High Gloss Black Lacquer finish.

Comments and critiques always welcome.

Edit: Patterns posted in Pattern Exchange.

Edited November 2, 2023 by FrankEV

[ChelCass]

Oh Frank,  those are awesome.  I think her daughter will be thrilled with them.

[Scrappile]

Frank, I agree completely, those are both wonderful pictures!  Really a nice job.

[rjR]

Wow---Fantastic work.

[Peter N White]

Very great work will be the star on her wall.

[preprius]

Very cool.   

I love the blue water splashes a drops.  Looks awesome. 

Now an interesting question,  Is the daughter also save the forest? Will she care that this is made from wood?

If there a chance that your customer looks at this post just let me know I will promptly edit and remove this question.

Me.  just asking dumb questions again.

Edited November 2, 2023 by preprius

[MarieC]

Lovely work as always!  The touch of blue really is a nice addition.

[rjweb]

Frank, you have done an excellent job, RJ

[wombatie]

WOW, they are so cool.  Love them both.

Marg

[Dak0ta52]

Awesome job, Frank... but I've learned to expect nothing less from you!

[FrankEV]

1 hour ago, Dak0ta52 said:

Awesome job, Frank... but I've learned to expect nothing less from you!

Thanks, but you might want to read my post in General Scroll Sawing re: Lesson’s Learned (Just an FYI).

[barb.j.enders]

Both look great.  I read the other post first.  It would have been interesting to see the fire wood as well to see the changes you made to the pattern.

[daveww1]

terrific job

[OCtoolguy]

Those came out beautiful Frank. Color adds so much in some cases.

[FrankEV]

6 hours ago, barb.j.enders said:

Both look great.  I read the other post first.  It would have been interesting to see the fire wood as well to see the changes you made to the pattern.

Thanks. 

I considered it, but my ego got the better of me.  Didn't, and don't, want to dimiss the myth that I'm nearly perfect and I never make the big bad mistakes, and I always do everything worth bragging about. 

That is far from the truth and my post was condescension enough.  I don't often make too many cutting mistakes but I freuently do make the big type mistakes and many of my cuttings wind up in the fire tinder pile well before, or even during, colorization and finishing.  If I'm not happy with how it looks, then nobody else gets a chance to see it, usually not even my better half.  I believe most out there can relate.

However, in the case of the Whale Tail, the better half did see it and she was the one who convinced me to start over from scratch.  When she says it is bad, It is really BAD.  I'm sure you get the picture

[Gene Howe]

Much of my scroll saw work is really bad. The rest is worse. But, I keep plugging away.