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Things happen, and they did in a big way, in my second attempt at a fretwork/sculptured project. The pattern is Owl by Seyit that I modified to suit an 11”x14” panel and adjusted for carving. The panel ‘started out’ as a piece of 3/4”x11”x14” and the pattern was cut with Pegas #1 spiral blades. The many-hole cutting itself was quite time consuming as the pattern has many very close together cut outs and required very slow cut speeds. After completing the scroll work I attempted to lower the background using a small trim router and a router sled to create a uniform lowering. I was removing 1/4” of material and as I moved across the piece the panel began to warp, causing the cut depth to vary, making the surface uneven. I stopped and when I returned to the shop the next morning, I found the panel had flattened out and I was able to clean up the uneven cuts. I was close to being finished when, in attempt to clean up a remaining small area, I proceeded to put a big, unrepairable, gouge in the panel. In order to try to save the scroll work I cut away the background from the image area. I then proceeded to do the necessary carving and painting of the image before affixing it to a 1/4” backer that I embellished with some colored work. The Frame is just pine with a detail trim strip, stained with a Minwax water based stain called Royal Pine that turned out to be very ‘Blue’ and not the color I was looking for. I added the gold color to the beading with Acrylic Craft paint and then finished it with Minwax water based Polycrylic clear satin protective finish. The water based products do dry much faster but I don’t think I will be using this system in the future. Every project is a learning process, and boy, did I learn a bunch with this one!

This Sculptured Fretwork portrait of an Eagle Bust (my go to subject) was made from a slightly modified and resized pattern by G&K Woodworking to suit an 11” x 14” panel. I used nominal 1” x 12” Poplar purchased a Lowes as I did not want to invest a lot of money for any expensive wood as this was my first attempt at doing a sculptured portrait. The fretwork was cut using Pegas #1 Spiral blades and the panel was affixed to a painted Black 1/4” thick BB Ply Backer after sculpturing and coloring was completed. I would like to take this opportunity to give a big THANK YOU to Dick Mira for sharing information regarding the sculpturing and coloring process. I was his support and encouragement that gave me the confidence to try this kind of project. This first attempt was a very big learning experience. The first lesson learned is that the choice for an appropriate pattern is very important. Since I'm not capable of making my own patterns I need to utilize those made by others, and since most are not made with sculpturing in mind they may often need to be modified somewhat. I quickly learned that the sculpturing process is not easy, requires a lot of attention to details and a lot of hand sanding. I also learned that the sculpturing and painting process is very time consuming, especially waiting for the finishing materials to dry in between coats. I also made a custom Poplar Frame embellished with some premade decorative trim. The frame was stained with Minwax Red Mahogany and the trim colored with a light coat of gold(ish) colored paint. The frame is protected with multiple coats of Wipe-On-Poly. Edit 12/28/20: It will be a little while before I upload a new photo. Decided to take some of the comments and suggestions to heart and work on the background. Edit 1/3/21: Here is my Eagle Bust Portrait with a colored bacground. I saw a photo of a real Eagle with a blue background that had fuzzy stars. Could not figure out how to make my stars fuzzy. The two coats of the blue poly/paint mix over the original poly finish took forever to dry. Then the stars, using a stencil and spray can white, and another coat of Wipe-on Poly.