Octopus

[FrankEV]

I converted a stock image of an Octopus Illustration into a nominal 11” x 17” Scroll Saw pattern for this Intarsia project.

As I’m new to Intarsia, this project was a learning curve from beginning to end.  The project is made up of only two different woods, Cedar and Blue Pine.  The actual cutting was rather easy as both are rather soft woods.  Grain orientation and choosing the appropriate color tones from the wood I used seem to be OK.  However, fit up, shaping, sanding and assembly all cause me a lot of challenges.  

·       The Cedar and Pine, both having grain with sections of soft and hard areas did not sand uniformly.   Very difficult to get a smooth finish.  

·       Due to the configuration of the Octopus, fit up was difficult as some sections had to be tight without accenting the edges of adjoining sections.    

·       Figuring out where to lower and where to shim was new to me.  

·       Assembly was a big challenge as edge gluing was the only way I was able to hold things in place.  Clamping to hold parts together was difficult, to say the least. 

·       Glue squeeze-out was also a problem.  Very difficult to clean up afterwards.

·        After all pieces were glued together, attaching the backer was a problem as the edge glued assembly did not lie flat.

Then came the question; How to depict the Octopus Suckers?.  I opted to use some small brass sleeves that I heated with a torch to burn in the circles.  I used small dots of Black paint in the Sucker circles.  This is how they are shown in the Illustration.

Since I did not have the correct wood to do the eye, I used Black and Orange/Yellow paint to color the eye.

Finish is multiple coats of Clear Closs Acrylic Finish spray.

Let me just say, the up close photo shows a lot of uneven surfaces.  However, when hung on a wall and viewed from a little distance, it doesn't look tooooo bad.

I think, if better hardwood was used, this piece could be quite spectacular.  

Please feel free to comment and critique.

 

 

[barb.j.enders]

What a great project.

I love the idea of using sleeves to burn in the rings.   Someone on the FB page had a pattern that calls for cutting and shaping separate pieces for the suckers.  Your's would be up my alley. 

One of the recent tips I read, for gluing, is to lightly spray wax paper with repositionable glue then you can put the pieces in place, pull one out to glue and put back.

[jerry walters]

You're wrong Frank when you say it doesn't look toooooo bad from a distance.  It looks outstanding, rather you're looking at it up close or from a distance.  When you have problems, you always find a way to solve them.

Jerry

[FrankEV]

2 hours ago, barb.j.enders said:

What a great project.

I love the idea of using sleeves to burn in the rings.   Someone on the FB page had a pattern that calls for cutting and shaping separate pieces for the suckers.  Your's would be up my alley. 

One of the recent tips I read, for gluing, is to lightly spray wax paper with repositionable glue then you can put the pieces in place, pull one out to glue and put back.

I contimplated drilling holes and using dowels to make the suckers.  Would have to be done before cuting the pieces as the suckers are on the shaped edge.  Not too sure it would have actually looked better than the burn rings.

I can see hiow that tip would work for some patterns.  However, I'm not sure if I used that glue up process I could have gotten the tight joints I wanted between the Cedar and the Pine where I did not want an accented joint.  My goal was to make the cosmbined different parts of the tenticles look like one.  It took a lot of clamping to get the pieces to butt tightly.   I just got to be better at preventing squeeze out.  

[Peter N White]

Looks good as is you are doing great.