Judy Gale Roberts Beginner Intarsia Class -Photo Journal

[Frank Pellow]

Judy Gale Roberts Beginner Intarsia Class   -Photo Journal  (part 1 of 4)

This class was conducted at Judy’s studio in Seymour, Tennessee in May, 2019.  It was a three and a half day course.  I drove approximately 1,200 kilometres from Toronto to attend.  The journey both to and from Seymour was an easy two day drive.  I took a route through Michigan, Ohio, and Kentucky on the way down and through Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York on the way home.  Both journeys passed through some interesting landscape. For instance here is a photo taken at the place where I ate my breakfast near Rocky Top, Tennessee on Tuesday May 7^th.  :

      

 The class commenced on Tuesday afternoon.  I had quite a time finding the studio in that the last few kilometres were on narrow, twisty, hilly roads.  Here are photos of the driveway leading up to  Judy’s studio and of my car parked on quite an angle outside the building:

     

          

 

The front porch was decorated with many interesting knick knacks and this gave me a very comforting and welcome feeling:

     

 

Stepping inside, I was overwhelmed with Judy’s art on display: 

      

          

 

There is too much art to hang on the walls of the showroom, so Judy has resorted to placing several dividers in the room to hold some of the overflow.  Even that is not sufficient space and one finds additional pieces on hallway walls, on office walls, on workshop walls, etc.

I believe that Judy has retained most of the original work she has done, and has produced patterns of the bulk of these pieces for sale.

The sheer volume of the art is impressive, but what makes it even better is the great variety of subjects and the degree of workmanship and detail that goes into everything Judy does.  Following are close-up photos of just three pieces to illustrate my point:

                                                 

 

      

                     

                                                 

 

 

 

Edited May 14, 2019 by Frank Pellow

[Frank Pellow]

(part 2 of 4)

 

Now for the workshop:

  

 

The workshop contains, at least, ten very well equipped workstations.  Here is a photo of mine:

  

 

There were nine students in the class well served by three instructors (Judy as well as two assistants Marianne and Peter) at all times.

The first afternoon’s activity was several scroll-sawing exercises.  This allowed us to familiarize ourselves with the equipment and to receive tips from the instructors.  The two most interesting exercises appear in this photo:

  

 

I fell in love with the magnifier and LED light attached to my saw.  They were for sale at the studio for quite a reasonable price and I purchased one.

On Wednesday, we sawed for real.  Our project was a Trigger Fish and it consisted of several different parts that we cut out of three different shades of cedar.  Non-cedar wood was used for the eyeball (parts of which had already been cut for us).  Here are two photos taken just as I was starting cutting the parts for my fish:

  

    

   

 

I found the cutting to be very easy particularly with the use of the magnifying glass and, early in the afternoon, I had cut and fitted all the parts:

    

Another thing that made the sawing easier than I am used to was the fact that the saw I used here had a much better blower than my saw at home.  I found where to purchase a replacement blower.

The final thing to mention is that the pattern, with its red lines and clear instructions, is right up there with the best scroll saw patterns I have ever used.
Since I was ahead of schedule, I was given a pattern for a smaller Triggerfish and quickly cut it too:

  

 

Going back a bit, I will mention lunch.  Make- yourself- sandwiches with excellent choices as well as salads, lemonade, and cookies were provided on the porch each day and I very much enjoyed sitting in a rocking chair, chatting, and just relaxing in low to mid- twenties temperatures (Celsius  of course)

Edited May 14, 2019 by Frank Pellow

[Frank Pellow]

(part 3 of 4)

 

We spent Thursday molding parts of the fish in order to give it a third dimension.  This is where Intarsia extends what one gets with Marquetry or Fretwork and where I have the most to learn. 

We started by attaching the majority of the parts together with double sided carpet tape:

    

        

 

In the photo above, Judy is demonstrating a technique for rapidly removing the top layer of the tape.  I found that the technique actually works for me.  In the past, I struggled quite a bit with this.

 

Here are photos taken when I was attaching the tail to the body:

      

    

 

Most of the parts were attached to a “sanding backer board” then molded as a unit:

  

      

 

Observe that the backer extends as a warning against over-sanding in places where parts which are being molded separately will later be attached to the main unit.

The main tool used for the molding and for adding texture was a variable speed grinder equipped with a flexible drum sander on one side and a “Wonder Wheel” in the other side:

  

 

This is all equipment that I will need to acquire before doing any such work at home.

The next two photos show the assembled parts taking the desired shape:

  

 

     

 

Judy had studied several Trigger Fish before putting this project’s instructions together and she observed certain characteristics such as slightly hollowed cheeks that we attempted to duplicate when molding the fish on the drum sander.  When working on such projects at home I will also try doing similar work using files, rasps, carving tools and, maybe, a Dermal tool.

After doing a lot of molding on the tail and body, I lined up the three extremities to determine exactly what sanding to do at the joints:

    

 

At this point, I also molded the fins as per Judy’s recommendations.

 

I had brought some Festool sanding pads (grits 120, 180, 320) with me and they proved to be very useful both for spot sanding certain areas and for general clean- up and polishing.

  

 

I am certain that I did more hand sanding than was called for in the instructions but, at least for now, I am more comfortable with hand sanding than with using the flexible drum sander.

Next up, were the mouth and lips:

  

 

Now, all that remained to complete were the two embedded parts, that is the eye (5 sections) and the pectoral fin (2 sections).  Both of these parts are to be placed on small “rising shims”.

As with the vast majority of art I have attempted, the most important part of any living being is the eye and that was certainly the most intricate part of this fish. The eye itself was made of a circle of Walnut placed within a small white piece of Holly.  Actually we cheated a bit on this because the walnut the embedded Holly had been prepared in advance of the class.  Also, a very small hole had already been drilled into the walnut.  Judy taught us  a neat technique for placing a small white highlight into the drilled hole.  She had cut strips of Holly about the size of a pencil, then used a pencil sharpener to make a point, then broken off the point.  Here is a photo of a box containing a pencil-like-piece and broken off points:

  

 

 In order to obtain a highlight for my eye, I simply put a dab of glue in the hole, inserted the Holly, tip first, into the hole then, once the glue had dried, sanded the highlight down to eye level.

Here is a photo of my fish, with all parts placed roughly in position, taken at the end of Thursday’s class:

     

Edited May 14, 2019 by Frank Pellow

[Frank Pellow]

(part 4 of 4)

 

Our first task Friday morning was to pry all the parts off the sanding backboard:

  

 

Next, we were introduced to the “Wonder Wheel”:

  

 

The wonder wheel was mounted on a grinder and it had been honed down to a sharp V.  It can be used to carve out fine grooves in the wood.  Prior to taking the above photo, I had re-attached the pattern to a fin then used the wheel to cut a number of groves roughly following the lines of the pattern.  For me, the wheel is taking a lot of getting used to and I am not, yet, very comfortable with it.  I did purchase a wheel and hope to gain proficiency.  The job that I did on this fish is marginally acceptable and I am confident that I will get better.

 

I was surprised to learn that Judy’s next step is to apply three coats of clear satin gel finish with a day of drying after each coat.  Of course, this meant that we would not be able to complete our fish during our class.   Rather, we placed one coat of finish on all but the bottom side of a fish that Judy had been working on in her “spare time” during the class: 

  

 

This is the type of finish that one wipes off immediately with a lint-free cloth.

The next step, was to cut a backer for our fish, being careful to cut the backer so that it would remain hidden when hanging the fish on a wall.  In the next picture, I was tracing around the edges of my specific fish in order to create a suitable backer pattern. 

  

 

Once, having completed that tracing, I drew a line about 3 millimetres inside the first line to use as the actual pattern.

 

Soon after “finishing” the parts, we turned to glue-up.  Here is photo of the two types of glue currently favoured by Judy: 

 

  

 

She advocates first making a final alignment of all the parts on the backer, then “locking” in things by  attaching extremity parts, in this case the tail and fins.  Once those are solidly in place, the body should be glued in.  Finally the rising shims and the parts above them are attached.

 

  

 

  

 

Notice that only a few dabs of glue are needed.

 

We wrapped up our project (literally) about 14:30 on Friday:

   

 

The wrapping allowed us to leave with something we could immediately show to people when we reached home even though our projects were still in pieces and requiring finishing gel and assembly.  It was a nice touch and reflects just how well thought out and organized this entire class had been.  Every aspect of the three and a half days we spent with Judy Gale Roberts was well planned. There was always someone available to help the students, and I came away with greater knowledge, better skills, and better appreciation of the art of Intarsia. 

Thank you, Judy and staff.  I hope to return for the Intermediate Class some day.

Edited May 14, 2019 by Frank Pellow

[amazingkevin]

I enjoyed seeing hers and your shops. You made my day!!!

[Scrappile]

Thanks, Frank, for the wonderful thread.  Glad to see someone likes The Titebond Quick and Thick as I do.  Would love to take her class, would be quite an experience.  Thanks for sharing....

[meflick]

@Frank Pellow shoot, wish I had known you were coming to one of Judy’s classes and I would have tried to come up and meet you. I live about 40 minutes from her shop. Which means I have had the benefit if having taken all 3 levels of her classes (have taken the advanced classes twice last year doing two different projects. The Trigger fish was also the project I did in my beginner class. I love going to Judy’s shop and seeing al her fantastic work all over the walls.  I am glad you enjoyed the class and did such an excellent job in taking photos and writing it all up for others to see. If anyone has the opportunity to take her classes I would highly recommend them. Don’t wait too long either, she is cutting back some of late. I hope she doesn’t retire anytime soon as it would be a great loss to all interested in the art. 

[Frank Pellow]

11 hours ago, meflick said:

@Frank Pellow shoot, wish I had known you were coming to one of Judy’s classes and I would have tried to come up and meet you. I live about 40 minutes from her shop. Which means I have had the benefit if having taken all 3 levels of her classes (have taken the advanced classes twice last year doing two different projects. The Trigger fish was also the project I did in my beginner class. I love going to Judy’s shop and seeing al her fantastic work all over the walls.  I am glad you enjoyed the class and did such an excellent job in taking photos and writing it all up for others to see. If anyone has the opportunity to take her classes I would highly recommend them. Don’t wait too long either, she is cutting back some of late. I hope she doesn’t retire anytime soon as it would be a great loss to all interested in the art. 

It would have been good to meet you Melanie.  With luck, I will be attending and Intermediate Class next year and, if I do, I will certainly contact you in advance. 

Like Melanie, I strongly recommend attending Judy's Classes.  Just meeting Judy is a privilege, being taught by her is even better.

Edited May 15, 2019 by Frank Pellow

[spirithorse]

Excellent thread and wonderful photos, Frank!
Thanks for all the information and the time it took you to prepare all this in such
a professional manner!
I have been to Judy's studio on several occasions but, have never taken a class.
As you said, just meeting Judy is a privilege in itself.

I have not attempted a wonder wheel because I am still too concerned about not
being happy with a project after doing all that work and then using such a large
tool to accomplish what can be done with hand sanding or a smaller rotary tool
or carving tools.
I'm sure you'll do fine with it because I have seen your work before the class and
your attention to detail and your desire to perfect your skills are both admirable.

Thanks for the great thread and God Bless! Spirithorse

[Frank Pellow]

I forgot to post the Class Photo, so here it is:

By the way, the fish being held in the photo were not made by the students.  They were all made by Judy.  As I reported above, we left the class with our projects incomplete.

[Coachmike]

Thanks Frank, your tour was excellent.

 

Mike

[don watson]

Thanks for this. An excellent insight.