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The original “Stencil Art” I used for these pieces is by Lee Czembowski, aka BoyKidWonder (BKW). The characters, in BKW’s art, were inspired by characters in comics and the like, and created with slightly naughty interpretations. You may recognize many of the characters. Since they are already stencils, I had to do very little work to adapt them as patterns for the Scroll Saw other than adjusting pattern size. I decided to break away from my usual large panel presentations and do this series of B&W cuttings in small 5/32” x 6 1/4” x 8 1/4” solid core Maple panels affixed onto painted oversized ¼”x 8” x10” BB ply backers. Of course, I could not stop myself from adding a little color by painting the oversized backer frame area pink. After assembly, all panels were protected with Clear Gloss Acrylic. The small pattern size and the intricate details required me to exclusively use Pegas #2/0 spiral blades as many cutouts were not much wider than the blades themselves. I also had to be extra careful not to cut though between adjacent areas as many were very close together. My success rate was maybe 98%. And, yes, in a few places CA glue came to the rescue. I also parted from making custom frames for these pieces. I found very inexpensive – less than $3 each - 8” x 10” frames on Amazon, which I decided to use. The painted black rails of the frames are about 1/2” wide and were supplied with the usual glass (plastic), matt board and backer for hanging or tabletop standing, all of which I discarded. I only had to add a small sawtooth hanger to each frame and the pieces were complete. Comments and critiques always welcome.

Howdy all. This is a fun little project I just finished up. This is based on Captain America: Civil War movie that came out (which was awesome, BTW). I made this on my weekly live stream from my shop. Basically, I wanted to make a Captain America shield and the Iron Man mask as wall art. I decided to create it in an old folk art style called Lath Art. Lath art is best known in the New England states. Artists would take strips of lath (from lath and plaster walls) or recycle old lobster traps to make pictures. They would use the direction of the strips to imply details, perspective, and movement. It’s similar to segmentation as you are only using 1 species of wood. But it’s also similar to intarsia because you are using grain direction and cutting out sections to fit together. But the image is usually flat without use of carving (but there are exceptions). It's also known to be pretty rustic and usually has rural or nautical themes. Anyway, I have always admired this kind of folk art, so I thought I’d take a stab at it. I cut my strips of lath from 2x4. I kept everything rough sawn. I also roughed up the edges of the lath. I create sheets of lath by gluing it to craft paper. I colored the pieces with craft paint. The metallic areas, I used silver and gold leaf to add a bit of shine. Then to distress the piece, I sanded away the paint in the high spots. Then I covered the whole thing in a medium colored stain and wiped it away. It gives the illusion of 70+ years of dirt and grime (Captain America is from the 40’s). Once the stain dried, I added a paste wax for protection and to give it a dull luster. It also makes it feel nice in the hands. It was a fun learning experience. I really liked the process and I’m going to experiment with more lath art in the very near future. This was made during my Live stream. Each Sunday at 1pm PST, I stream for about 3 hours from my workshop. You can hang out and chat, ask questions, and watch me work. I’ve seen a few SSV members stop in and say hi. I love chatting and hanging out. It’s not always scroll saw stuff, but I do a lot with the scroll saw, depending on the project. I’ve already done a Deadpool scroll saw portrait on the stream, which was a lot of fun too. I hope you stop by. You can find my live stream here. If you miss the live version, I think the replay video is available for about 2 weeks.