Cardinal and Flowers - Intarsia

FrankEV · March 14

Here is a Cardinal - I know it is a popular Intarsia subject - I made from a 39-piece pattern I adapted from an image of a SG piece. The Cardinal and Flowers is approximately 8 ½” x 8 ½”, surface mounted on a 9 ½” diameter solid wood plaque style backer. Wood used: Aspen, Bloodwood, Poplar, Wenge, Mahogany, Yellowheart, and Sycamore for the plaque backer. The eye is a dot of white paint. The assembly is protected by multiple coats of rattle can spray Clear Gloss Acrylic Finish.

The following JFYI.

I happen to be fortunate to find a couple of Poplar nom 1"x8"x8' boards at my local Lowes that had a lot of, the hard to find, dark green color heartwood. I purchased them and added them to my wood stock, so I did not need to enhance the leaf color with dye or paint.

I attempted to add some sculpturing effect to the flowers and it resulted in some visable color variations after applying the finish that I had not planned on, but my Lady says looks good. She says they look like real Dogwood Flowers.

The Bloodwood, like Padauk, makes very fine dust that sticks to and stains other wood, however, it is not quite as deep dark as Padauk and it has slightly more color variations that was needed for this piece. The photo makes the red look darker then is is in real life.