Chickadee

[FrankEV]

I adapted a winter scene photo of a Chickadee to create a 10” x 10” Intarsia pattern.  This pattern requires very accurate cutting to get a good fit-up.  Wood used: Aspen, Basswood, Costa Rica Mahogany, Mahogony, and Wenge.  Dye was applied to Aspen for the Light Grey areas.  I used a 5/8” thick Premium Pine Project panel from Lowes for the free form plaque type backer. The backer perimeter edge was cut at a 4-degree bevel and then a router was used to round-over the top edge using a 1/8” round-over bit.  The completed assembly was protected with multiple coats of a Clear Gloss Acrylic Finish.

Comments and critiques welcome.

I will post the pattern in Pattern Exchange.

[Scrappile]

Well Done.  I love the bird intarsias.

[preprius]

Frank your really doing good.

I had to really examine this piece for the winter theme.  Just a touch of snow on the branch.

You have done lots of fretwork.  Now your doing intarsia.

How do you compare precision? 

 

Me.

Mark Eason

[FrankEV]

7 hours ago, preprius said:

..I had to really examine this piece for the winter theme.  Just a touch of snow on the branch.

You have done lots of fretwork.  Now your doing intarsia.

How do you compare precision? 

 

The photo I used had dead leaves, so I assumed it was a winter scene.  My leaves are not green as they would be if not winter.  I did not even think about the indication of snow on the branch.  I just followed the photo when making the pattern.   

I enjoyed doing the flat fretwork, especially with adding color, but my stockpile of finished pieces was getting too large and insperation for new pieces was getting more difficult to find.  Intarsia seemed interesting and challenging.  I still get to work with color, if not with paint.  Pieces are generally smaller and I don't have to make frames.  AND, as I was warnned, without a doubt Intarsia is addictive!

In your final question, I guess you are asking about comparing precision between Fretwork sawing and Intarsia sawing.  Loaded question! Read on if you have the time.

Art panel Fretwork sawing is tedious and care must be taken not to cut into adjacent cut-outs, but following the lines super accurately is not as imperative to the final image. Of course, drilling and treading the blade in the many hole panels I did is a SPITA.  I enjoyed useing spiral blades to cut the very thin plywood panels. The results of the cutting is apparent immediately and quite satisfying to the senses. Adding color was my way of kicking the resuts up a knotch.

Intarsia, on the other hand, is less about the sawing and more about interpretation of the wood and art being created.  That being said, accurate sawing is imperative to get a good fit-up of the pieces. Cutting the same line twice exactly the same is the key to good Intarsia.  No quick cutting using spiral blades. However, the sawing is actually the lesser part of the effort when doing Intarsia.  The sanding to get good fit and finish, shaping (or sculpturing if you will) to make the art come out of the wood, the wood choices to obtain the art colors, the assembly/glue up, and even the application of the finish must all come together before the art can be viewed and the senses satisfied.  You only get a hint along the way of what the final piece will look like before the final finish is applied.

I also like to create the patterns for the projects I do.  For my flat fretwork I was making more and more of my own patterns.  For Intarsia, there are many very good patterns available by some very talented Artisans, but I really do not care to do OP's patterns.  I spend many hours at the PC to make my own Intarfsia patterns which I share freely.  This is also what makes Intarsia challenging for me. 

      

Edited Wednesday at 12:30 PM by FrankEV

[daveww1]

terrific job

[jerry walters]

One word Frank   WOW

[rjweb]

Beautiful job, design, cutting and finish, RJ

[Gonzo]

Impressive as all heck Frank! Your work is amazing  Your description of doing intarsia is dead on, and so very true. 

[preprius]

15 hours ago, FrankEV said:

AND, as I was warnned, without a doubt Intarsia is addictive!....

I enjoyed doing the flat fretwork, especially with adding color,....

Read on if you have the time...

 

I joined this village and you were starting to add color a few months later. 

What an inspiration, to see you get better just as I started learning.

Now your showing huge steps of progress in a different facet of scrollsawing.  

So a perfect time to ask a the precision question.

Shortly after I started, I was trying intarsia humming birds,  and I asked how to split the lines of patterns.   I think many answers from the village was, we saw up to the lines but not split them.That was a relief to me.  But I saw some youtube videos that described try to split the lines. So I was a bit confused.  Another reason about precision.

THANK You for taking the TIME to share your experience with many words and ART and PATTERNS. 

If someone sees your timeline of posts, galleries it could inspire them to get thru early frustrations. It did with me.

I hope that they will ask questions to help get to your level of work. 

Of course this goes for many other experts in this village that show their work and expertise and take the time to teach us beginers.

As I still have a day job, I have to choose my projects wisely. So I have not taken up  Dave Monk's challenge of his beautiful western box. I need more practice.  

 

[Scrolling Steve]

Nice work, I saw that little guy on my feeder just the other day. 

[FrankEV]

6 hours ago, preprius said:

... I asked how to split the lines of patterns.   I think many answers from the village was, we saw up to the lines but not split them.That was a relief to me.  But I saw some youtube videos that described try to split the lines. So I was a bit confused.  Another reason about precision...

 

 

It seems from what I have gathered there are two ways to approach following pattern lines.  It really has more to do with the pattern than the cutting itself.  Thick line patterns vs. very thin line patterns. 

Those who use thick line patterns, they need to split the line to be accurate. Those, like myself, that like very thin line patterns can approach the cutting a little differently. 

For thin flat fretwork type panel cutting and using (me) spiral blades, the line is more of a suggestion as where to cut.  Again using very small blades, a slight deviations from the line to either side does not usually effect the image unless very long,very straight cut lines are needed.  Such deviations seen under 5x magnification are not apparent froma  normal viewing distance.

For Intarsia, however,  I find there is a need for much more accurate cutting to obtain a good fit-up.  I use the approach of cutting up-to/next-to the line.  I cut just to the outside of the individual pieces so if any fit-up sanding is required, there is material to work with. You can always remove material, but you can not add material that has been cut away. Remember, there is always the loss of material between individual pieces due to blade thickness.  Again, this is why I prefer, for cutting 3/4" thick material for Intarsia, to use using the smallest regular blades possible...I like Pagus #3 MGT-R for most wood species but they dull and break easily on very hard wood, like Purpleheart.

Let me state this is MY way of cutting.  It works for me.  But, it certainly not the only way to be accurate and successful at cutting any kind of patterns using a Scroll Saw.

[Farmerdon]

Very nice!