meflick

Beautiful work as always. Glad to hear your first eye surgery went so well. Prayers that second goes as smoothly,

Congratulations. Look forward to seeing and hearing more. As far as the day job and conference calls - unless you are having to do a lot of "talking" - just take the call out in the garage and work and "listen".

Congratulations Ray. Looking forward to hearing how you like it. Don’t get rid of your other saw until you know you are going to love it and have finished the tuneup/repairs on this one.

John, so sorry to hear of your injury and thst it puts you out of commission on scrolling and getting things to donate to your organization for their auction. Prayers said for a speedy recovery with no further issues.

Brian, if you can help me figure out how to convince my hubby thst I NEED. A Hawk and a Hegner to add to my collection of saws I might be interested. I hear so much about them and really would like to try them but I am not sure I can convince him. where is Big Canoe, GA in relation to Atlanta area or Athens area? My children are presently in both areas at school. Maybe I can slip down to visit one of them and have them mysteriously arrive on my return trip and deny any knowledge of how it happened. Either that or leave them in the storage shed at the Atlanta location for now. Claim I need them for when I am down there. Or, tell him I am going to start teaching classes in the garage. Which saws do you have? Scott, glad your new Pegas Saw is arriving tomorrow. It’s red so I don’t “need” it.

I would start with a phone call to Ray who is the expert on the Excalibur's and see what he tells you. I don't believe this is the "norm" because I have not had that issue with either the used excalibur that I have or my Seyco saw.

Glad to hear you new shelf system worked and was easier for you to handle. Congratulations on the sales.

They did a great job on their boxes. You all had a day thst will be treasured memories. They have a useful project that will remind them each time they use it. Worth a bait of back pain I think.

Nice looking plaque as always Dave. The Couple will love it. Now, as to the type of wood, since you are now in Texas, and you say its the first time you have cut this type of wood, I am going to say it is something that is easy to find in Texas and so I am going to guess Texas Mesquite wood.

Both are excellent works Dick. Glad to see the company is still gone and you are getting more time to play. Thanks for sharing.

What a beautiful project you have crafted from a great pattern. Your patience to do that kind of work I envy. It looks awesome and is stunning the way it is even without any stain. Thanks for sharing.

That's beautiful Steve and I can see why your wife loved it. I agree that it looks great cut into the purple heart but - oh my, between all those tiny fret holes, and the density of that wood - I think they statement that it took a lot of hours is no doubt true. I admire your patience and tenancity to do that one.. Love the little animals hidden in the branches. Thanks for showing.

Now that Lawson pointed it out, it is obvious to me. Looked last night and didn't have a clue. Looking good so far.

Thank you Dick for the kind words. However, I don't know about every surpassing anyone and doing this type of fretwork. While it may be just one hole at a time, it's all those holes that have to be drilled and then cut, then the blade moved, then cut, then the blade moved that my patience will not handle in those large fretwork patterns like this one! I will just admire yours!

Ooh - that one is cute too. I love Bruce's patterns too. I have several of his to try. This is the one from JGR that I need to finish (photo is from her website) As I recall, I am almost done but was still working on the baby's face, in particular the nostrils area. Maybe I can get it done soon. (Have been working on other things lately.) She did say during the class that this was probably the hardest one she has ever done because it uses a lot of shims and due to the fact that so much of the baby overlaps the mother. Also have Willie Nelson from her Fall class that I need to get out and finish too. (Yes, I am a procrastinator at times!)

Beautiful work both on the cutting and the frame. Thanks for showing.

I like them both. Really like the Redemeer one. You need to get bored more and share more of your work.

What a beautiful gift Dick and will no doubt be a family heirloom. Your new granddaughter in law is going to be thrilled I am sure. Thanks for showing. I know I do not have the patience to do that fretwork for sure!

Glad to see you finally got do,e time in your shop. Great looking box. Thanks for sharing.

You are right, sometimes it is hard to tell the depth and dimension from a flat photo. I could tell you had done some sanding and shaping and as I said, it looks good. My main intent was simply to encourage you to keep looking at ways to increase your depth and dimension of projects so that they look realistic not just a simple cut out of different pieces of wood like a flat puzzle that some people do. You don’t necessarily need to round edges more, sometimes rounding edges doesn’t make it look realistic. I hope neither you nor Paul @Scrappile thought I was being critical of your work. That was never my intent. I was simple hoping to give you helpful tips and information that would help you as you continue to work to improve your skills in this area. I am far from an expert, having only been doing Intarsia work for a short period myself but have had the opportunity to take classes with Judy Roberts, one of the preiminent Intarsia artists. She teaches to use sanding shims to sand multiple pieces together to help give them correct shape and dimension and to use raising shims to add some depth when needed. As Dick noted, usually those are not very thick pieces but just enough to add a little more depth like on a nose for example. Brian has been doing beautiful Intarsia work for years now, and had shared his tutorial info. that uses some of the same techniques so I thought it would be helpful to see how he did it to understand what I was suggesting. This is an area that most beginners struggle with, I know I do still. So I was simply hoping to give you that information to help you as you continue to progress. You are doing fine. The key is to do what you are comfortable with as it is your project. You are the one seeing it in person and can decide what you like. We all have different visions, and ideas. Nobody’s is right or wrong or better then someone else’s. That is the beauty of art. Make it your own.Keep working at it, as I said, you are doing fine. is the Mama and. Baby Giraffe pattern Judy’s pattern? If so, I have done that pattern (well almost - it was her Advanced class pattern last Spring - we didn’t get done in class and I need to finish it. ) it does use a lot of sanding shims and raising shims and lots of sanding for depth and dimension (you take it to class all cut out and spend 3 full days working on the sanding and shaping and you still aren’t done when you leave. ) if thst is it, I will try to share some photos of my work in progress if you want.

Another great looking project Greg. You are doing well with it. Now, let me encourage you to do a little more sanding and shaping of the individual pieces and maybe use some shims to add more depth and realism to the projects. Doing so will take yorvprojects to the next level. Note sanding shims and shims are different. Sanding shims are temporary shims used to sand several pieces together at one time. While a shim is used to permantly raise up a piece or pieces in a project to add some additional depth and dimension to the project. Some articles/info. That might be helpful include: https://intarsia.com/blogs/news/using-sanding-shims https://intarsia.com/collections/dvds/products/ocontouring-intarsiao-dvd books by either Kathy Wise or Judy Gale Roberts. Also see Brian’s info/tutorial shared here in the Village here:

Time is a necessity when working with crafting an Intarsia project for sure. You are doing great and I can see why your wife is finding you more and more projects she wants you to do. I usually end up sanding some part of a finger or a hand along the way it seems. Presently, I have a "sanded" thumb. Keep up the good work - each one you will find you improve your process. Thanks for sharing.

Good to see you John. Just wanted to let you know that you had been missed and wondered what/where you were. Go ahead and share "repeats" - for some of us (at least me) half the time or more I probably will have forgotten I have seen it before anyway!

Welcome to the village from East Tennessee.

Looks good to me Edward. Thanks for showing.