meflick

Welcome from a fellow newbie to the forum but also a newbie to the scroll saw as well. Congratulations on the new saw for your anniversary. Sounds like you have a great wife! I much prefer my tools I want over jewels. LOL I look forward to seeing you and your work.

Hi Teresa and welcome aboard. Like you, I am a newbie here as well and my primary interest that has brought me here is also Imtarsia work. The real, intricate scrolling work intimidates me but I am in awe of that done by so many here. I hope one day to give some of that a try too but it will be a while before I am that comfortable on the saw. Plus, I am really enjoying the intarsia work. I live in East TN not far from one of the great Intarsia artist, Judy Gale Roberts. As a result, I was able to take her beginner class back in May. One thing I learned. Is that to get the depth and realism to the pieces, you will be doing a lot of sanding and shaping. There is no quick key to success, she said the more time you can spend on the saw, the better you will get at cutting. She also introduced me to the magnifier on the saw which helps me tremendously in seeing the line. Another thing is that all of her patterns she sells have red lines, I found red lines are easier for me to see against the blade. She also said she never cuts at full speed that she probably runs it at 70 percent most of the time I think. She also said to try to cut down the middle of the line to start, as you get better, you want to shoot for cutting just to the left side of the line. Plus, she said to mark your lines where they don't connect to another piece (she uses a yellow highlighter). That way you know you can relax cutting those, they don't have to be perfect since they don't match up against another piece. That has helped me as well. I am so glad for you and your parents that you have been able to move closer to them. To have a hobby you can share with your dad is even greater. I hope the two of you get many hours in the shop together. I lost my dad many years ago and my mom just passed in April after suffering from Alzheimer's for several years. Starting the Intarsia work has given me a good mental focus that I needed because of that. My two kids are now in college so I was ready to fill my time with something like this. Intarsia work is helping me find a "happy place." Your dad's work he shares here shows he is indeed a great scroller and an artist in his own right. You will be able to learn quickly with him as your teacher. Enjoy that time together. He has been very welcoming and encouraging to me (as has everyone here) and he is excited about you starting to work with the scroll saw and participating here. I look forward to seeing your work and sharing as we learn Intarsia together. Feel free to message me at anytime as we learn together.

Dick, I looked at the up close photo and I didn't see any flaws to pick apart. Too bad you are so far away to get some of their pies in payment. Since I am in East Tn I am not that far from them. Perhaps I can go and collect pie payment for you. (Will have to wait a few weeks though - interstate between Tn/NC "under construction" to help prevent rock slides. Down to one lane each direction I think around state lines. No way I am going that way until that is done.

bronx - how very generous of you to gift a saw to someone else in need. I hope that the two of you can work out meeting up soon.

Looks like you made them very happy with a beautiful sign Dick. The sign is great and I am sure that many people will admire your work with it hanging there in the shop. I hope you get some pie as a thanks!

Sorry to hear that your friend didn't show up. Sounds like this might not have been the first time. Very frustrating when you make plans like this, get your hopes up and then they get dashed. Hopefully you can arrange something to help you out down the road. In the interim, you can only do what you can do so keep on scrolling if that is what makes you happy.The rest will take care of its self eventually.

Beautiful, detailed cutting. Looks great. Thanks for sharing.

Agree, very cute ideas for small puzzles. I am sure they will be well received. Thanks for showing your photo.

No advise, as I am a newbie myself and in the States. However, I did want to say welcome. I joined a few weeks ago and have found everyone willing to help and give good advice. Hopefully you can find a good saw soon for your needs.

Newbie here myself so no real advise to give. I mainly wanted to say welcome and I hope that you can find a good saw that will let you continue to learn and love this hobby. I am in East Tn. Just took my son down to Athens to start his second year at UGA. Wanted to ask where in GA is Dacula?

Welcome from another at TN person. Like you, I am also a newbie so we can learn together. Your first project looks like you are well on your way.

Congratulations. The work is well worth both awards and you have every reason to brag. Stunning work. Thanks for sharing your pics and letting us know about the honor.

Beautiful work all around. Thanks for sharing.

I agree Dick - It's great to meet people in person when you can. Glad you got to meet up with Travis. It's great when you can actually get to know a person "in person." I have made an effort to be here and get to comment to help me become a true "member" quickly. I think that is because I have been on a couple of other forums for my paper crafting hobbies for several years and learned that you have to make the effort to participate and share in order to get comfortable with the others on the forum. I agree that it helps to feel more like an extended family - albeit a family that shares the same hobby/passion (which is also nice when others in your real family may not.) I look forward to seeing your daughter join in and seeing her work.

Scrollsaw703 - I checked out your Facebook page (found here for others looking: https://www.facebook.com/Sawdust-Haven-265994370272157/?ref=ts&fref=ts You do great work as well. Love the feathers and the dream catcher posted there. This might give Denny some ideas for others to do which is another reason I posted a link back to your page. You can always get your granddaughter to help you out on here with photos too.

When we took Judy Gale Roberts class, she said she always signs on the front of every piece just as any other artist signs their work. She said just because you are using a scroll saw and sanders to create your project didn't mean you weren't creating "art".she also said people pay more for "art work" then for @crafts." Made sense to me so I have been signing all my pieces on the front like she does.

Thanks everybody for all the great tips you are sharing. I am learning right along side fastfreddy.

Looks great. Really like them macadamia wood. Will have to keep an eye out for some. Thanks for sharing.

I can see why you made that mistake. Great advice on having them spell it out while you write it down LEGIBLY. LOL had a few times where I have had trouble reading my own notes this why I said legibly. Great cutting on both.

Thanks for sharing your photo of this project and sharing your specific experience with it. I had Sen. This pattern on Steve Good's site not long ago when he shared it and saved it to maybe do sometime. I have a sister-in-law and her husband who are both professional musicians who I thought would like this project. I will eventually get brave and give it a go perhaps. I will try to remember your advice about it. Thanks for sharing.

More great work Kevin. Sounds like a true friend. Glad she is going to help you out with both the scrollsaw work sales and maybe your health too. Good luck with all that.

Nice work. Thanks for sharing. One day I might get brave and try this type of cutting. Need to master the Intarsia though. (Well, I don't know about "master" but at least get consistent with it. Thanks for sharing.

You are welcome Dick. I agree that JGR has so many wonderful patterns and it would be hard to keep track of all that she has and she keeps adding to them. She has so many that I want to do that I am not sure that I could ever get to them all in my lifetime. Time will tell I guess. It will help when the heat of summer goes away and my kiddos are back at college. I will have more free time that I need to fill! I look forward to seeing your daughter's work. She and I can be newbies together. You might send Travis a pm and have him look into her registration. I had sent him one a week or so ago asking a question and he said he was covered up with his real job so maybe still is.

Great news. glad you were able to shop local and to fix it fairly easily and inexpensively. Happy cutting!

I'm too new myself and mainly trying Intarsia work to be able to give you any real critique or feedback. however, I did want to say I thought it looked nice. Also wanted to note that I "think" that what looks a little like "burn" marks on some areas like the "head" for example is due to you "pushing" the wood too much into the blade rather then letting the blade do the cutting. I am still struggling with that sometimes myself. one thing they had me try at my Intarsia class was speeding up the speed I was cutting with and/or switching to a different blade then what they had us using "normally". both of those helped me but I still have to "think" not to push sometimes. We will both get there with practice. I haven't been able to practice any this week - getting my son ready to return to college this coming week and they were building a large coffee table and a loft bed for his room at the frat house in the workshop. Hope to get back to it this week when I get back from taking him to school.