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I have been away from most of my intarsia making projects and decided to try and make a few of the patterns I have had around for awhile. In doing so I found a photo of this one somewhere on line and downloaded the photo and attempted to make a pattern from it and cut make it, as i sort of liked the little guy. Here is what I ended up with. The one thing I added to the wood to get what I wanted from it was the multiple little lines on the owls body by simply using a wood burning too to make them. I have never tried that before and thought it worked fairly well this time. Dick heppnerguy

This piece is for a Corvette club. 1/4-inch Baltic Birch stained natural with a Birch backer painted red. Four coats of Polyacrylic with light sanding between coats. The frame was pre-fabricated cut to size and splined for strength. I double stacked this piece and the other has a backer stained Ebony.

A few months ago a French Officer I work with at NATO SACT HQ* asked if I could make a US Flag for him out of wood. I thought I could come up with something better, and told him so, but I said it would be a while. Well, I am slowly working on it getting done and the first piece was cut out this morning. I using 1/4" and 1/2" Basswood for this piece as I will be painting it. I am using a couple of patterns from Steve Good combining Lady Liberty from another of his patterns. Of course, since the French gave us Liberty as a gift, adding her to this piece is a bit more meaningful in my mind. So here is where I am at today, and will post updates as this piece progresses. *North American Treaty Organization Supreme Allied Command Transformation Head Quarters in Norfolk VA.

Okay, here's day two. The eagle has landed! As I was arranging the elements of this, I decided to put Lady Liberty on a riser, rather than having her at the same level as the eagle. Aesthetically, I believe it looks better with three levels. Oh and the score... 1 broken crown point broken and repaired. 1 broken eagle tail feather repaired. Now I have a dilemma on how I will finish this. I was going to do a rattle can finish, Of course, Red and blue for the flag, and if I add an accent backer that would be white. The eagle was going to be gold, and for Lady Liberty, I was going to do a mix of 3 rattle colors and simulate copper, her original finish. I have included a photo of one of my multi-rattle can finishes. As you can see it comes out well. The thing is, in order to get the desired effects, I have to lay multiple, THICK, coats of paint. I am afraid that those will clog the small line veining in Liberty and the Eagle. This would mean going in by hand and clearing them all out. Because of how many and how fragile the pieces are, I am having second thoughts. I do not want plain wood or stain. I am thinking of bringing out my airbrush, as that is thin paint, but the effect will not be the same as I had planned. Any thoughts on that for finishing?

Made these for my wife yesterday

I finished this Jim Blume pattern this afternoon and the wife dubbed it as being one of my best pieces. I'm not so sure about that but I will say it is an outstanding pattern and a lot of fun to cut. I tried to find my directions to count the number of cuts using Inkscape but never could locate them among my "never lose anything" filing system I have set up on my computer. This was cut using the Blonde wood I had located at Lowe's with a Birch backer. The piece is stained with Ipswich and the backer is stained with Ebony. Four coats of Polyacrylic and pre-fab framing material provided the finish. I do spline my frames. Despite the many holes, the piece is quite easy to cut. There is only one delicate area, that being the lower part of the eagle's neck... the part just under his beak. I encourage you to give it a try.

A few more items for stock. One of my upcoming shows is for a cat rescue, hence the two cat puzzles. Wood is poplar ordered from KJP hardwood.

I saw this Eagle Welcome Plaque by S. Good in one of his emails a while back and thought it would be a nice piece to make and add to my Eagle Collection. I modified his pattern slightly to make it as large as possible and still be able to fit on a the 12” wide precut panels I use. This resulted is the 1/4” thick Solid Core Red Oak ply cut panel being a nominal 14” x 11” mounted to a 1/2” thick painted premium ply backer being a nominal 15” x 12”. I rounded the perimeter top edge of the backer with a 1/4" round-over bit in tmy Router table. I also did away with his “WELCOME” third layer and cut the letters directly into the now single top layer. I use Pegas #3 MGT R to cut pattern and the perimeter of the backer. I would prefer using a spiral blade, but for this type of cutting, and as everyone knows, the regular blade produces a much nicer looking clean-cut edge. Just had to be a lot more careful keeping the blade from walking off track and to be extra careful making my sharp inside and outside corners. The backer was primed and then painted rattle can Brick Red. I then masked off the plaque to allow me to paint the area under the word “WELCOME”, white. After assembly I gave the entire plaque multiple coats of Clear Gloss Lacquer. Comments and critiques always welcome.

LOML decided the little crosses were too plain, so she blinged them up.

Well You Alls here is another craft to Brighten up your Day. Hehe Brighten. Hehe Just color. I like it. Cut this one out of BB1/4". Was a Lot of Fun. My Original Idea was to paint each Leaf a Different Color....BUT.... my Better Half convinced me that hey they are leafs. Be better Green. So.................All comments will be Nice. Danny :+}

Okay first off yes these was done on the laser. I posted here because aside from the text around the ornament being engraved these could easily be done with a scroll saw. The designer is on Etsy shop name “ Homestyle Customs “ and they have a lot of pattern files that easily could translate to scrolled work. When you download the designs they come in a few different formats one of which is PDF for easily made to print and cut on a scroll saw. With the laser the box joints are precise enough that the box needs no glue, just snaps together. I used a different than normal plywood so the fist few I made the laser was too much power and it cut through too deep on the engraved text and some of the top laminate came off on the a’s, b’s r’s etc so near the end of the batch I finally figured out the power level to work best. Lol I cut them from Maple and the backers from walnut. Oh I should mention that the patterns come with the ring of icons around the outer edge of the ornaments or without them. I have the icons shown here but without the icons the center portion is much larger and probably a much easier way to do on a scroll saw. I’m going to make the ones without next. Almost think without the icons might look better without all the small icons taking away from the center of the main image.

I love the patterns that take some time to cut while adding some challenges along the way. I may cut one for a Christmas gift for some one on my list too. Great job and nice finishing effort Dick heppnerguy

Simple name cutting for my daughter’s college friend. The right piece of wood turns something simple into something beautiful.

the wood used certainly adds to the character of the entire project. Looks great Dick heppnerguy

Latest work... Didn't care how long it took this time. Mutant Baltic birch 1/4" had many variations of tight and loose in the layers and was a challenge. Even with touch up sanding it still doesn't measure up to the pattern. Guess I gotta keep practicing !

The cut is very well done but the framing really brings the eye to it. Great combination. Dick heppnerguy

I agree with what you are saying. I have used this method before a couple of times so I do understand completely what you are telling me. when I am colorizing my paper pattern pieces this method is not doable. In the wreath pattern, I can see that as a good place to use that method indeed. Thank you for your input, and OH I am sure glad you are still on The Village as you and I go back some time on here together. I always enjoyed our conversations and fun times then Dick heppnerguy

The Covette club should be very pleased. Jerry

Yeah, I'm going to build an enclosure but just haven't got anyplace for it yet. Working on enclosing my driveway.

Ray this is a newer version of what I have.. you could run it in the house so long as you're somewhat close to a window or even a dryer vent that you could plug the exhaust tube up to.. Many times this company will have these refurb models cheaper than this one is.. I got mine at the beginning of the trend of lasers and the popularity for these K-40's for the sweet price of about $300 that i gave for mine they are a very powerful and a decent starter machine especially for someone that like's to tinker.. and learn.. https://omtechlaser.com/collections/pre-owned-machines/products/40w-co2-laser-engraver-cutter-us5-032r-us Or like Larry said he's doing.. build an enclosure.

Very nicely done, bring back memories I had a 67 corvette sting ray, RJ

I am a old Microsoft user from way back. When I was working we bought a company that all the sales guys used Apple and they didn't want to change. My tech guys comment at the time was "Real men don't use mice". With them him being busy I went and bought the Macs - hooked them all together with the printer and it was instant network. I then sent my Tech guy to learn all about Mac and he converted the whole office. Now I can't do without a mouse. Good luck. I hope they can get it fixed.

Welcome to SSV from Illinois, it's a great place to relax! I have great memories of Wales, I spent most of my childhood holidays there... I'm a Brit now living in the States .

Welcome from Delaware! My wife and me spent a week in Denbigh Wales 5 years ago. Beautiful country. You will like this forum. A great place with kilos of tips and tricks.

Nice looking wreath, I don't know about the other two men that responded before me, The leaves can be any darn color you want no matter what she says,,, oops got to go, my she is looking over my shoulder... I may be gone for a little while..

So I haven't been very active here for a while. I have been pretty busy of late. I got my work into a local store and it's keeping me pretty busy. I'm not complaining though, it has been a great little side gig. Anyway, thought I'd post a few pictures of my latest stuff to try to catch up.

Like Richard, I try to cut in a counterclockwise direction around a cutout area. Specifically, I will cut the inside of circle cut with the waste to the right of the blade using a large regular blade ( #3 or #5). Another thing that helps me. My pattern line work is very thin. I keep the blade cutting along the waste side edge of the line. Easier to control then trying to split a fat line.