Pattern Layout

[Travis]

Here's a question for you intarsia artists out there. How do you layout your patterns?

 

I was looking through backissues of magazines and looking at my books, and it seems that they make photocopies of their patterns, cut out all of the pattern pieces and separate them by color, then mount them to the wood. So before they start cutting, they have all of this wood with patterns already mounted. Then they cut them out and piece them together. Is this how you work? I don't quite understand how this works as I have a bugger of a time trying to get a nice tight fit on my pieces. Granted, I'm not a very accurate cutter, but I'd imagine I'm not the only one.

[Clayton717]

That is pretty much how I do it Travis. If its a large pattern or one I know I will probably use a lot I print out the pattern and transfer /glue it to poster board then cut all the pieces out and keep in in a large envelope. This way I can use it over and over without the need of reprinting it everytime.

When starting I seperate pieces by wood type/color, then trace each piece onto the wood. If there is a group of pieces with the grain going the same direction I will trace them as one piece, then each piece seperatly within the group. I feel this way gives best choices for the grain in a piece. Once I have everything traced onto wood then I start cutting. The most important thing about assembly is to make sure the edges are square. Honestly on my projects there is never 100% tight fitting joints, I get them as close as I possibly can.

DON'T GIVE UP you will get it. Hope this helped you some.

[Fran]

Travis, we were talking the other day about our methods of doing this. I think most people do it like Travis. I use another method--I trace the pattern onto tracing paper. I use carbon paper to trace the individual pieces on the wood. After the first piece is cut I use this piece to mark the adjoining piece. This should insure a good fit between the pieces. As I cut pieces out, I put transparent tape on top to hold them together and make sure no pieces slip.

I Hope you can understand this, I have just had cataract surgery and can't think real well yet.

Fran

[Fran]

http://intarsia.net/

 

Travis, Bruce Worthington has done a tutorial using the carbon paper method. It is a cute little Teddy Bear. You may want to visit his site to see what I was talking about.

Fran

[intarsia92]

Travis, I first run off a copy of the original pattern to preserve it for future use, then I select a starting point, usually a large piece in the central area of the Intarsia being worked on, and place a piece of "Clearprint 1000H Drafting Vellum" over the place on the pattern and piece I've selected to be cut. I then trace the shape of that piece on the vellum and add a line across the piece to indicate grain direction then staying outside the lines roughly cut it out and place it on the piece of wood I've selected to use for that place in the Intarsia. I use scotch tape around the whole outside piece of vellum I'm fasting to the board to prevent sawdust from getting under my pattern and then cut out the shape, cutting on the line or just on the outer edge. The first piece doesn't matter. I then select the next piece to be cut making sure it's adjoining the piece I just cut. Laying a new piece of vellum over the new area I place the piece I just cut over the pattern on top of the place where the piece would go, "If that makes sense?" I then trace that area of the cut piece that adjoins the new piece, put it off to the side and finish tracing the new piece and marking the grain direction; Remove, tape and cut, repeating for the rest of the Intarsia.

 

When cutting all pieces, after the first piece, I cut just on the outside edge of the pencil lines, especially where the piece will adjoin the next piece. I put little tick marks to identify those start and ending points. If anything I stay outside the lines and use one of my vertical oscillating spindle sanders to sand down to the lines. That way I always have a very tight fit. When I started out I tried cutting out all the pieces at one time and I usually ended up re-cutting pieces or living with gaps, which almost made me give up. Using the above method I hardly ever have to re-cut. When I do careless sanding is almost always the cause.

 

As I cut I tape all the pieces together, by putting paper masking tape on the top side of the pieces, to hold major sections together, therefore I know all pieces will match because the Intarsia is almost assembled when I'm done cutting.

 

I was fortunate enough to purchase several rolls of vellum when a drafting and art supply store was going out of business.

I have enough to last me the rest of my cutting days. lol

 

Other methods of or transferring patterns to wood are: the use of carbon paper, spray adhesive, rubber cement and etc. I find the cost of Scotch tape more than makes up for the hassle of trying to remove cements or trying to see where where the carbon transfer lines are, especially on darker color woods. I figure the time saved is worth the price of tape!

 

Hope this all makes sense, Al

[Travis]

Very good tips. Thank you. I've had the intarsia piece on the back burner for the last 6 weeks or so. I'm going to pull it back out and get working on it again. I moved my saw outside so I can enjoy the weather. But the weather hasn't been cooperating much. I'm taking Friday off, so hopefully I can get some work done on it, assuming the weather lets me.

[amazingkevin]

intarsia is such a rewarding craft.Learning tips and tricks along the way is very rewarding and satisfieing