the first one was a failure

[heppnerguy]

Well gang I decided to get out from under the rock I have been hiding under and try to make a pattern and cut it. Well I thought I was doing pretty well. I thought I had all the islands figured out. I liked the subject matter. It looked really pretty good on the Gimp program. I printed out the pattern and headed for the shop. After cutting for awhile and making a few impromptu changes as I went along, I finally had to come to the realization that things were not as they appeared. The one thing I forgot to take into account was the printed pattern was way smaller when printed and although it looked pretty acceptable on the computer, it was not so great when being cut on the saw. I managed to kind of get it cut out and when I looked at it, I understood it was not going to work. I decided to post it anyway, so you all could see my pattern making errors and I will use it as a learning item. I know better, hopefully, what to watch for and to really scrutinize  my printed pattern before wasting my precious wood on a mistake. Perhaps others that are thinking about making patterns for the first time can also learn something from my mistake. so the moral of this story is........ if you screw things up the first time, just pick yourself up off the shop floor and try again and pretty soon you might actually make a good usable pattern the cuts correctly and the even might look good when you are finished. As you can easily see, I made no effort to sand and finish this piece because it was not worth any more effort. Even though this is rather an embarrassing item to post but at least I can only get better. Don't get discouraged if you too, happen to make the same kind of mistakes as I did, does not mean that you are a complete failure it just means you need to try again. 

  Happy scrolling

 

Heppnerguy

Edited August 24, 2013 by heppnerguy

[Phantom Scroller]

Well Dick it looks good to me, You will always have more issues when you start than good ones but the old adage is if at first you don't succeed then try again unless your a sky diver. lol 

 

Roly

[jerrybritner]

I am no pattern designer, however as I did with Kevin Durant posted yesterday I dabble from time to time. One thing that has helped me is that when I get stumped I can go to the village university and take a refresher course. One day hope to be able to afford one of those pen sets like Sue Mey has told me about, which has got to be easier than drawing with a mouse.

[Fab4]

Hi Dick:

I think it turned out o.k.

We can see that it's a guy riding a bike

Well done...........

Actually, just kidding  (about it turning out o.k.)

 

O.k. - Let me start this over...

 

I'm no designer either but here's my 2 cents even though we do not have pennies anymore in Canada

For being one of your first attempts I think you did really good

What's even better is that you know what to do on your next pattern

I seriously say - Good job on this one and keep up the great work

Fab4

[Dan]

I think the pattern was great. I would sand that piece and see what it looks like. The details in the kayak and the man's vest is fantastic. Not sure how big that piece is but if you make it bigger try adding a little more detail to the face. I don't know if that would help (and I know faces are a PITA for me). I think that would look great on a piece of hardwood with a natural edge, also.

[bobscroll]

Well Dick, I appreciate you putting your work on the forum, We all have a learning curve

to learn from, I have made mistakes on patterns when I started, As you say get right up

and start again, Thank you for posting Dick,

Bob 

[heppnerguy]

it was a learning experience. I did have a pretty good face in my pattern but it was really too small to cut into it so I skipped that part. Maybe I will try to work on this same pattern and see what happens. I am not discouraged because I know I can improve on it.

[ChelCass]

Well Dick it looks pretty darn good to me.  If you should care to share this pattern I would love to cut it.  I have to close friends who kayak and I would love to cut this for them.

 

Chelcass

[amazingkevin]

looks great,you did a great job of patterning this gem.Personally i'd like to see the thin lines a little thicker ,a fater scrollsaw blade will take care of that in one swoop!Your shadows are on the money .i would'nt dig to deep and make a mountain out of an ant hill .What ever you dont like about it is just nothing ,i love it.Great job .You had great control on the long thin lines by the way!Keep up the great work .I can't even pattern ,lol

[amazingkevin]

Now that i look at it again the thin lines now look like the boat is made out of fiberglass and the jacket the lines depict the tuffts in the matterial .Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.Still i give you 3 stars for it!  From the sand pile south florida!

[DonR]

Dick, Your pattern is just fine. It had a couple of little floaters, which I took the liberty of fixing, then I ran it through Inkscape to clean it up a little and here is what I came up with.

Don R

[spirithorse]

Nice work, Heppnerguy,

Thanks for showing the project (which is pretty good in my opinion) and thanks for the advice to help other potential pattern

designers.

 

Don,

Great patter but, I have to admit that at 8" x 10" the detail still leaves the problems Heppnerguy spoke of with extremely

hard areas to scroll at that size (such as the facial features) and there certainly isn' much holding the bottom of the pattern together

with the oar and the shadow intersecting most of the bottom portion.

It CAN be scrolled and I am not demeaning your artistic ability. I am just commenting that it would be a difficult pattern at

8" x 10".

Thanks for helping Heppnerguy with the clean up and God Bless!
Spirithorse

[Fab4]

WOW!!!

Great job Don

Dick:

You weren't too far off - looking forward to your next pattern

Fab4

[keefie]

Well Dick it looks good to me, You will always have more issues when you start than good ones but the old adage is if at first you don't succeed then try again unless your a sky diver. lol 

 

Roly

Roly, everyone knows that as a skydiver you wait till you are 10 feet off the ground before pulling the ripcord - that way if the chute don't open you can jump the last 10 feet!!!!

 

Heppnerguy, that looks like a great pattern to me, there were only a couple of minor problems with it which Don has kindly fixed for you. Keep practicing and you will get to be one of the great pattern makers here, you are doing pretty well now.

 

Keefie

[Phantom Scroller]

Hi Dick.

                I have just noticed that the cut from his right hand to the water is a bit long almost cuts the pattern in half, if you break the shadow before the water it would make it more secure, just a thought.

Keep at it. I still remember Mahendra when he started and look at him now, there's no stopping him oarsome .

 

Roly

[lawson56]

For your 1st attempt I give you 2 Thumbs Up.You have the desire to do this this,so you will get better.I have only been doing it for about 2 yr's.I still make mistakes.Love your cutting.Don't stop now. :thumbs:

[wombatie]

Dick for a first try I think its fantastic.  We all start somewhere.  I know when I do one it usually takes me about a week then if I still can't get it right I throw up my hands and come and ask for help.    One piece of advise I will give is sorry make that 2 pieces of advice; 1 don't drill all of the hole in one go, that way if its not working out you have not wasted all that wood only some of it.  2 always start with the hardest part first, same reason if it does not work out not so much designer firewood.

Ok Dick keep working at those patterns.

 

Marg

[heppnerguy]

  Thank you everyone for all of  your tips and encouragement. I am not sure when I will attempt my next pattern but I hope it will not be too long. I am a little busy right now, but things should slow down soon, I hope. Christmas is coming and that will keep me busy.  we are going on a three week vacation at the end of Sept. so it might be interesting between now and the end of the year.