Relief Segmentation Bobcat

[shadylady0447]

I have started on a relief segmentation of a Bobcat. If you’re interested in the process you can follow my work in progress in this thread.

 

My wood of choice is poplar because it cuts like butter, is a light colored wood and takes a stain nicely. I’m using ¾†because of the different elevations in the final assembly of the pieces. I have sanded the poplar with assorted grits of sandpaper from 80 to 220. This will save time later. I applied blue painters tape to my wood and then sprayed the back of my pattern with 3M Super 88 spray adhesive and applied it on top of the tape. This will help lubricate the blade and I find they last a bit longer. You can use clear packing tape instead of the painters tape. Some people use both, covering the pattern with the clear tape. I find that to be a waste of tape. I have also found the glare from the clear tape gives me a headache and also the sawdust gets under the tape and obscures my lines. I prefer the tape under the pattern but whatever works for you is what you should do. I’m going to use a #2R blade so I will use a #68 drill bit to drill entry holes in several inside pieces. Carefully drill your holes on the lines. Now on to the scroll saw. Make sure your scroll saw table is square with your blade before you start cutting. This will save you a lot of grief when you begin the final assembling of the piece. After cutting the perimeter of the cat and severing one of his ears I discover that I need a place to keep all of these small pieces so I won’t lose them. I have found a fairly shallow box big enough for the entire project.

 

When you begin cutting, you will need to plan your cuts carefully. Because the cat’s “fur†has lots of fragile pieces, the less it is handled the least likely it will break. So in the next picture I have cut off some of the protruding pieces. This will also reduce the overall size of the piece and make it easier for me to work with.

 

Be sure to leave enough of the piece to hang onto while cutting those interior pieces and the smaller outer pieces so you don’t run into problems. Here you can see I have severed the cats other ear and have cut the two interior pieces first. My next cut will be the small piece on the bottom of his ear saving the largest cut for last.

 

As you can see from this picture, I have cut several pieces off that had very fragile areas. I also cut the top of his head off and removed several inside pieces. Some of these are very small. I am leaving the pattern on them to help me determine top from bottom. Also, I had marked all of the interior cuts with an X so I would know which ones needed to be drilled. This will help me get the pieces put back together! Did I mention that I liked puzzles!!!

 

 

That’s it for today! I’ll be back in a couple of days to show you the staining procedure. That should be fun….I will have to take it all apart again to stain it!!!

[Marshall]

Sue I'm going to keep an eye on your project for one day I want to try something like your doing here . I'm mostly in to Christmas Ornaments and some portraits , this kind of work your doing here takes so much time in the sanding and getting the right look . But I'm going to try and learn from you , so you'll have my attention for sure ..... ..............Marshall

[wood-n-things]

Thanks for sharing..I'll be watching.

[shadylady0447]

Sue I'm going to keep an eye on your project for one day I want to try something like your doing here . I'm mostly in to Christmas Ornaments and some portraits , this kind of work your doing here takes so much time in the sanding and getting the right look . But I'm going to try and learn from you , so you'll have my attention for sure ..... ..............Marshall

 

 

Marshall, most of the sanding is done before I apply the pattern. It isn't shape sanded like an intarsia piece or a regular segmentation. The three dimensional look comes from the different elevations of each piece. You'll see what I mean as I post more pictures. Thanks for your interest.

[Travis]

Ooo...this is going to be cool. I've always admired these segmentation projects and I've been wanting to do one. It'll be fun watching you put this together. Can't wait for the next installment! Good job!

[shadylady0447]

My time is not always my own even though I’m retired! So after numerous interruptions and the dreaded trip to the grocery store I have finally finished cutting up the bobcat! It has 120 pieces and some of them are real little! Luckily, I only dropped one and was able to find it right away! Removing the pattern and tape is a very tedious job and with all these pieces it was not much fun. I gave the cat a light sanding with a 320 grit sanding sponge. I usually vacuum my cuttings but since I can’t do that I will just wipe the front with a tack cloth and move on to the next step.

 

 

I made a copy of the stain chart and separated the corresponding pieces into some shallow boxes keeping them in some order as to where they will go when I reassemble them.

 

 

I have all the pieces stained and I’m satisfied with the colors except for the darkest one. The stain chart said to use a black permanent marker on all of those little pieces and then stain it with dark walnut. I decided that wasn’t something I was willing to do so I will dip them in the stain one more time to see if they are dark enough. All of those pieces are small enough to just dip them in the stain can using some neat pliers that have a spring in them and act as a clamp. I don’t know the technical name but I found them in my husband’s toolbox…I hope it was OK to use them! (grin)

 

 

I have to let the stain dry thoroughly so there is no residue transfer to the other colors so that’s it for the day. See you in a couple days.

[Marshall]

Looking good and I don't blame you for not using the black magic marker for sure , I would have had a problem with this too ............Marshall

[Firedkm]

Looking good Sue. Its going to be hard to wait a few days

[shadylady0447]

I made quite a bit of progress yesterday! The first thing was to make sure the stain was dry and wipe the pieces with a soft cloth….one for each stain color. The next thing was to make a copy of the assembly elevation color chart and gather all the tools I will be using. I’ll need a hot glue gun and glue sticks, CA glue (super glue gel), some fine sandpaper, and some 1/16†and 1/8†shims.

 

I’m going to put the cat back together in sections. The top of his head is one of the “level†pieces. All of the other pieces are measured from the “level†position in increments of 1/16â€. His ears are recessed from the “level†position so I’m going to put those together first. Working from the back, carefully position two pieces together using the shims to either raise or lower the piece to be glued. Glue them in place with the glue gun. Try not to get any of the glue on surfaces that will show when completely assembled. For the little pieces I placed some CA glue on the bottom edges and inserted them from the back to avoid any glue transfer on the front of the project. I then used the hot glue gun to fill the hole. This just gives a better hold for these very small pieces.

 

 

I have attached the ears to the top of his head and now you can see how they are recessed to give a 3D impression. I haven’t found all of the pieces for his head yet! This is a great way to get my puzzle “fix†and scroll at the same time! I love puzzles!

 

 

The cat’s nose will be the highest elevation in the project. Several pieces in his nose are the same level. I want a tight fit on these pieces so I’m going to use CA glue on them.

 

 

Once again, working from the back with shims, I have found all the pieces for most of his muzzle and glued them in using the CA glue and the hot glue gun. You can see the different elevations from the front.

 

 

This is what I was able to get done on the project yesterday. I think the cat is “shaping†up nicely!

 

 

[shadylady0447]

After my post of this morning I started to put some more of the cat together and I kept looking at the muzzle and I felt it just did not look right. I referred to the elevation chart and finally realized that I had mistakenly set the elevations wrong on several pieces! Groan!!! The colors on the chart are so close that it is hard to tell them apart! I am going to write a letter to the publisher to let them know they need to use colors with more contrast. My husband thought I should just junk the whole thing and start over. I am not one to waste my time and effort or my wood so after a little persuasion, a couple of choice words and some heat from the glue gun I managed to get the offending pieces apart! My only problem was the little pieces that represent the whiskers. I had used CA glue and was unable to get them out. Not to be defeated by some whiskers, I decided if I was very careful I could use my scroll saw to cut them off to the correct level. To my amazement, it worked! A little touching up with some sandpaper and a black fabric pen and I was ready to glue it back together! This is what it is supposed to look like!

 

 

Even if you make a whopper of a mistake, you may be able to salvage your project. So don’t be too quick to toss it in the firewood box.

[Christina]

This is a fabulous WIP Sue. I so appreciate your going into such detail and showing booboos too! I've wanted to try a project like this for sometime and this really helps alot. You are doing a great job on it and I think it's going to be absolutely gorgeous when you are done. Thanks again for sharing it with us.........I'll be watching lol.

Christina

[Marshall]

Sue as I said earlier in my post this is very time comsuming , and I'm kind of like your husband I'd probably threw it in the trash can . But this would be good for making one a patience person . You was talking about the elevation ,I hope that most of the patterns state the elevation . For this is real important in this project I can see for sure , looks good as far as I can tell > but then I'm not one to say anyhow ... .....Marshall

[shadylady0447]

Thanks, Christina. I'm glad I could salvage my work and thought it would be helpful to show my booboo! LOL I could have trashed it and just re-cut those portions. I'm sure you've used a hot glue gun and know that when its dry it is like rubber so it just peeled right off.....lucky me!

 

Marshall, all of the patterns in the book have a staining picture and an elevation picture which are in color and each color corresponds to either the stain color or the elevation of the piece. The pictures are about 3 x 3 inches and the colors they used don't have enough contrast between them. Even after scanning the pictures and enlarging them I am still having trouble distinquishing the difference between some of the colors they used. I think a better way to do the charts would have been with numbers. It would be hard to mistake a 3 for an 8 unless the printing was smeared! I will be sending a letter to Fox Chapel about the problems I've had with this book. Maybe the designer can change some stuff before they reprint it.

[Marshall]

Thanks Sue your doing a real good job on the leasons that your providing us , keep it coming and it's finally soaking in now............Marshall

[amazingkevin]

Wholely molely!,Travis has sent me a few times the link which brought me to this part of the village which i did not know existed.High praise to you sir!I had allway wished villagers would elaborate more on their projects.This is the first time i have been curious enough to see why he keeps sending me these.I thought i was doing something wrong like not signing out of a site looked at or some silly mistake i overlooked.I deeply regreet that i didn't follow up on the last few times he sent me the links talked about.Snooze you lose.I didn't want to dig to far to soon as i roam around the village and try not to cause any problems like (stack cuttings)

oop's hit a wrong key scroll down the page for more at the bottom as i don't know how to bring it up here,

 

.Your talks about the "infamous tiger" you are so meticulous.And i think your more that ,maybe obsessesed with minute details .Praise to you for all you have accompished with your hobby.thanks 4 being here for us!

[Travis]

What a great thread. I'm really enjoying watching this come together. Nice save too! Can't even tell. Keep up the good work!

[shadylady0447]

I made a lot of progress on Saturday but it was also a frustrating day! I discovered a couple more mistakes in both the stain and elevation charts. So you can better understand my frustration, I have included pictures of the charts.

 

 

I was having a lot of trouble with the left side of the cat’s face. Following the elevation chart, I carefully assembled the left side but it just did not look right. I took it apart and put it back together three times before I was finally satisfied with the results. Yes, I am my own worst enemy! To make sure I was headed in the right direction, after deviating from the elevation chart, I fitted the pieces together to get an idea of how he would look.

 

 

It is very important to get the eyes correct when doing a project like this. Once again, I felt the elevation chart was wrong. As you can see from the following picture, the eye on the right is set at the level called for on the chart. I thought it was way to deep so I set the eye on the left higher and decided it looked more realistic.

 

 

After making the decision to change the eyeball elevation I finally got a lot accomplished for the day!

 

 

Saturday was so frustrating that I just had to take a break from the cat on Sunday! So to relax I made a few patterns! Today I will hopefully add the top of his head and try to figure out where the rest of these little pieces are supposed to go!

[shadylady0447]

Success!!! The cat has the rest of his head and I managed to glue all the little pieces in their proper places!

I thought you would like to see a couple of pictures from the sides so you could get an idea of the different elevations in the piece. You can see in the second picture why I was having such a time with the left side. There is not much room for error.

This is the back of the piece. Not very pretty but it gives you an idea how its put together.

I didn’t follow the elevation guide when I added the small pieces. I used my own judgment on the placement and I am pleased with the way they turned out.

Now I have to build the cat a frame. See you in a couple of days.

[Marshall]

Sue its a great piece , I've enjoyed it so far ................Marshall

[shadylady0447]

There are only three places on the bobcat that will be touching the backing board. I decided that I wanted to be able to glue to a larger area so I made a shim to attach to the back. I think this will be more secure.

I have cut and sanded the poplar board I am using for my frame. I have a small dremel router table and used a small round over bit on the edges of the boards. I’m using a band clamp to hold it in place while the glue dries. I used corner clamps on my last frame but I think this one is easier to use.

The next step was to stain the backing board and the frame. Then glue them together. Now I can measure and place the cat on the backing board and glue him down. These last steps take the longest and I get impatient waiting for the stain and glue to dry!

I let the glue dry for 24 hours and sprayed him with three coats of Deft Satin Spray finish. I think the bobcat looks pretty good!

For those of you that followed my work in progress, thanks and I hope you enjoyed it!

[Marshall]

Very impressive project Sue , a lot of work here . I think that its a fine looking Bobcat and thanks for the step by step classes , If anybody didn't get anything out of this then there's something wrong .............Thanks again..........Marshall

[Fran]

Thank you, thank you very much. I have had Neal's book a couple of years now and the bobcat was the reason I bought it. Just haven't had the time to start on it and was really wanting to see how someone did it. Now we have someone to ask questions. Thanks also for the tips about watching the pattern very close, and about elevating the pieces. You did a real nice job, very realistic.

Fran

[Travis]

I really enjoyed that series. Thank you for documenting the process. I've been wanting to try my hand at segmentation. The end result is stunning. Nicely done!

[JAY]

Really nice Sue! great work and really interesting to see how it all comes together thanks for showing us,

Jay