Tree Frog Intarsia Progress - COMPLETED

[Frank Pellow]

I was inspired to finally getting around to attempting intarsia by Larry's (Sycamore67) version of Kory Kite's Tree Frog project.  See the thread: 

A good reason for choosing this are the detailed notes and photos posted by Kory  Kike at http://lumberjocks.com/KoryK/blog/29432 

I've found in the past that it helps to keep me on track on a large project if I document things here as I go.  So, that's what I am goin to do.  Below is the
first report.

tI wanted to use all natural wood on this project and, with one exception, I am managing to do so.  That exception is for the green parts of the frog.  I did locate some green poplar but it was not nearly as good as the green in Larry's frog.  Therefore, I decided to colour the poplar after the pieces have been shaped and before everything is assembled.  I experimented with six different combination of stain and acrylic paint.  The of them are shown in this photo:

After a small survey of friends and family, #3 was picked.

Kory suggests using thick wood (about one inch) and that is what I am going to do.  I have little experience cutting such wood on a scroll saw and that's going to be interesting.

The photo below shows all the parts organized on the chosen boards:

The types of wood that I am using (from left to right) are:

• Blackwood (black)
• Jatoba (reddish)
• Walnut (brown)
• Poplar (greenish)
• Holly (white)

Edited September 26, 2018 by Frank Pellow

[spirithorse]

Cool!
Looking forward to seeing the progress.

God Bless! Spirithorse

[amazingkevin]

Lets see the results !

[Frank Pellow]

Quote

 

Second Report:

Cutting the pieces proved to be easier than I expected.  Not having to stop all the time to thread a blade through a hole is quite a luxury.  I used a Flying Dutchman Ultra Reverse #5 blade and checked every now and then to make certain that the blade was at 90 degrees from the table.

As I cut the pieces, I placed them on a copy of the plan:

After cutting all the pieces I numbered each piece on the bottom or side then took the paper off the top:

Next, I got to see how this might look by fitting all the pieces together on the plan.  A little bit of filing was needed for a few pieces but was surprised at how little additional work was need in order to fit everything together.

Edited September 14, 2018 by Frank Pellow

[don in brooklin on]

Looking great Frank.

There is a video on repair gaps that is informative.  The series is quite long but he does a good job in explaining things.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZZd4yRQ4wM

[Frank Pellow]

Thanks Don.  I did look at the gap repair video and will give it a try.  For the most part, I don't have any big gaps but I expect that there are some that I can test my newfound knowledge on.

I will probably look at the other videos in the series tomorrow.

 

Later: There was one particularly bad border between two parts.  I tried to fix it as per the video.  The fix worked! 

Edited September 16, 2018 by Frank Pellow

[Frank Pellow]

Third Report:

Over the last few years ever since I took various art forms (carving, stained glass, scroll saw, painting) I learned that the most important (and hard to get right) part of any living creature is the eyes.  Looking at  the many pages about the eye in Kory Kike's tutorial, he obviously agrees with this .

To this end the main thing I worked on since the last report was the eye.  This photo shows the tools that I used to shape the eye:

Here the parts of the eye are being glued together.  There is a shim on parts of the bottom:

The net photo show the eye after I have shaped it and applied Varsol then placed it on the pattern with some of the unfinished surrounding pieces loosely placed in position. 

Seeing this, I have made two decisions. 

1. I need to make another (very small) piece to fit into the gap at the far left of the green ring around the eye.
2. With a finish (simulated by the Varsol), the green of the poplar is good enough to let me be a "purist" and not resort to the use of stain in this frog.

Edited September 17, 2018 by Frank Pellow

[jollyred]

One thing I have found to make the eye really look "alive" is to put a small white spot on it.  This simulates a reflection.  One way  to do this is to put a small spot of white paint on the black part of the eye.  A less "cheating" way would be to drill a small hole in the pupil, the sharpen a piece of very white wood (such as holly or aspen) and insert it into the hole, then trim it flush.  I'm usually lazy and just put on the spot of paint.  It also helps to coat the eye with a shiny finish.

[Frank Pellow]

8 minutes ago, jollyred said:

One thing I have found to make the eye really look "alive" is to put a small white spot on it.  This simulates a reflection.  One way  to do this is to put a small spot of white paint on the black part of the eye.  A less "cheating" way would be to drill a small hole in the pupil, the sharpen a piece of very white wood (such as holly or aspen) and insert it into the hole, then trim it flush.  I'm usually lazy and just put on the spot of paint.  It also helps to coat the eye with a shiny finish.

Thanks.  I have done that with paintings in the past and it does work.  There is such a spot using a dowel on the plan, but I decided to simplify things for my first intarsia and ignore it. 

I will think some more about including such a spot.

[spirithorse]

Excellent progress and well done!
Thanks for sharing and God Bless! Spirithorse

[Frank Pellow]

Fourth Report:

I have been working on rounding the pieces that make up the head and this job is almost complete.  I don't have the fancy shaping and  sanding tools such as inflatable sanding drums and "wonder" wheels that many folks utilize for intarsia.  I am making do with a file, a "flapper" sander Dremel attachment, and foam-backed sanding pads for hand-sanding:

 

They appear to be doing an OK job.

Here are the pieces temporarily placed together:

 

Notice that I did fill in the gap in the circle around the eye.  I will do a little more shaping tomorrow than glue the pieces together.

I have not decided whether or not to place a white spot on the eye as suggested above by jollyred.

[Frank Pellow]

Fifth Report:

I'm taking this slowly and only working on it for a short time each day.

Today, I finished shaping and sanding (up to 220 grit) the pieces that I showed yesterday then I started sticking then together one piece at a time.  After the first few pieces, the assembly looked OK to me, not great but OK for a first effort:

But, then, the next piece did not fit at all well with big gaps pointed to by the arrows:

I'm going deal with the gaps (somehow?) tomorrow.

 

[Frank Pellow]

Sixth Report:

It turned out that the best way to fix the gap problem was to cut a new piece:

 

When cutting, I cut on the grey lines and outside the red lines.  As you can see by the second photo, the new piece fit well (well, almost well -there is small gap the I will ignore at the very top).

Assembly from that point went well and there are only four parts that remain to be assembled:

[Frank Pellow]

Seventh Report:

After completing the assembly, I traced the perimeter on the 3mm thick Baltic birch plywood that is being used as the backer-board:

The advice is to cut about 2mm inside the line when cutting the backer.  This is much harder to do than cutting on the line itself:

I did decide to put a thin dowel into the eye then to paint it white in order the add some "sparkle":

   

It really does work!

The back of the assembly was quite flat already, but I made it absolutely flat with  this sander:

At least one dab of wood glue was placed onto the back of every piece:

before clamping on the backer board: 

I branded the backer-board, wrote on a credit to Kopry Kiker and beveled all the edges in order to somewhat hide the backer from view:

I still need to do some clean up then apply a finish to this.  In order to simulate the final appearance, I spread on some Varsol then took this photo:

I'm away for the week3nd so won't get back to completing this until next Monday.

Edited September 25, 2018 by Frank Pellow

[spirithorse]

Nice work, Frank!

I have not worked with green poplar but, have read various opinions on how long it will retain its' color.
I hope you can put a good finish on it to protect that color for a long, long time to come.
You really did an exceptional job on this project.
Thanks for sharing and God Bless! Spirithorse

[Frank Pellow]

Thanks Bob.

This is my first experience with green poplar, therefore I too don't know what to expect about colour retention.  I will be putting at least three coats of spray urethane on it and will hope for the best.

[Frank Pellow]

 

Eighth and Last Report:

The project has been completed.

After lots of carving, filing, and sanding (mostly by hand), I sprayed this with three coats of rattle can Rustoleum Painters Touch clear semi-gloss waiting a day between coats and VERY lightly wet-sanding between coats.

Edited October 4, 2018 by Frank Pellow

[don in brooklin on]

Well done Frank,

Are you now going to teach the course at JGR?

 

 

[blights69]

I gotta give this a go at some point soon great job Frank 

[Frank Pellow]

5 hours ago, don in brooklin on said:

Well done Frank,

Are you now going to teach the course at JGR?

 

 

This is a bit of an inside joke.  Don knows that I am scheduled to attend a Judy Gale Roberts Intasia Beginners course in May. 

Don, I am certain that I will still benefit from the course.

[Scrappile]

That is so very well done, Frank.  Get you money back for the beginners coarse and  enroll in a higher one!!!

[Frank Pellow]

14 hours ago, Scrappile said:

That is so very well done, Frank.  Get you money back for the beginners coarse and  enroll in a higher one!!!

Thanks, but I think I will stick with the Beginner class.

[Sycamore67]

I think you did good for a first attempt.  As you found out, cutting needs to be very exact and often means cutting on one side of the line or other to get a tight fit.  Rounding the edges often hides the cutting problems.

As you gain experience, you will learn a lot about shaping and fitting.  I shape with a lot of different tools but the majority is done by hand sanding.  

[Rockytime]

Dynamic! You did a wonderful job. Thanks for posting your progressive steps.

[new2woodwrk]

Wow, that is absolutely incredible!

Thanks for sharing your progress - makes for a great tutorial!