Christ Ascending

[greasemonkeyredneck]

After making a couple of successful attempts with my stack cutting, I felt it time to give myself a real challenge. So I stack cut my favorite Jeff Zaffino portrait, Christ Ascending. This was a free pattern posted on his site a few months back for Easter. I stack cut these three at a time. They turned out good. I only has one tear out on only one of the cuttings. It was in bushes in the middle of all the men at the bottom, so I was able to shape it up a little and use it anyway. Here's a photo of one of them.

[shadylady0447]

Very nice work!

[Travis]

That turned out great. I've been wanting to cut that too. The pattern is still available for those interested. You can find it here. I really like Jeff's designs. I have my eye on one of his waterwheel patterns. Maybe I'll give it a go this winter.

[Barry5180]

That turned out great. Thanks for showing us. As for the tearout, since you shaped it the way you did, it looks like it's supposed to be there. It matches the size and style of many of the other larger cutouts. Nice save on that.

 

I'm a big fan of Jeff's patterns. He's got a few from past issues of magazines that I'm slowly working up the nerve to cut. Super detailed stuff like that is one of the things that fascinated me so much with scrolling. I've got a Christmas pattern he released for free of a couple of kids finishing the decorating of a Christmas tree. Would love to have a bunch of those done for Christmas to give as gifts.

 

Barry

[Christina]

Wonderful cuttings......thanks so much for sharing them with us.

Christina

[greasemonkeyredneck]

He's got a few from past issues of magazines that I'm slowly working up the nerve to cut. Super detailed stuff like that is one of the things that fascinated me so much with scrolling.

 

Barry

 

I love detailed portraits more than I do simple ones. I just like to do things that others sometimes feel intimidated by. That being said, ANYONE can cut things like this. I just think that there's a few things you have to keep in mind when doing this type work. First and foremost, remember that no matter if your project is simple or has thousands of inside cuts, there's only one way to get either one done, and that's one cut at a time. While remembering that, you may run into a problem that I have. On my cheap Delta, I have learned an important lesson the hard way. If I cut most of Jeff Zaffino patterns EXACTLY according to his pattern, I will create some mighty fancy firewood. The vibration and other factors of my saw just do not allow me to do that without pieces breaking off. So, I use this analogy. Think of his pattern as a roadmap. Just because a road is shown on a roadmap does not mean you have to go down that road. If you carefully compare my cutting to the pattern, I changed cuts, eliminated cuts, added cuts, and various other changes.

I do what I think will look good while still working fairly close to the pattern. An example would be Jesus's face. Notice that the on the pattern, his face is attached with one little tiny piece of wood near the top. I cropped a cut and left another attching piece at the bottom of his face. I do all this while working on the pattern. The othr advantage to this is what I call a iniquity. Doing the changes at the saw like I do makes it so that if you cut the pattern now and again later down the road, they will not be exactly alike. Each one is unique because there is no way you are going to remember exactly what changes you made this time when you cut it again.

So, trust me, with a bit of patience, and a little confidence, ANYONE can cut one of these detailed portraits. Give it a try sometime. The first time I cut a Jeff Zaffino, I amazed myself what I was capable of. Since then, there's been nothing I was scared to cut.