FrankEV

I made four of these large, 7” diameter, Snowflake Ornaments by Steve Good, that I will be giving away to some of my neighbors with my cookie trays that I do each year just before Christmas. We all have carports, and these will be a nice decoration to hang under them. (IMO they are too big for a typical indoor Christmas tree.) To make them I stack cut four pieces of 1/4" BB ply for each half. Cutting with Pegas #5 MGT R was a slow go. Took three blades to complete each half as they got dull quickly. Although I thought I sanded the halves well, after they were assembled, glued and pin nailed together, as soon as I primed painted them, fuzzies appeared. After drying, I had to knock the fuzzies down with my sanding mop, but there are still some visible where the mop could not get to. As the saying goes: “You won’t see them from Brooklyn”. I painted them with a finish coat of Krylon Glitter Shimmer, but the glitter did not show well. Retacked the surfaces and added some “White Body Glitter Powder”, that my lady had, and then recoated with Krylon Glitter Sealer. Now the sparkles are more visible in real life, but not so much in the photos. At least this year I got my Holiday projects completed way in advance. Now I can concentrate on my Art Panels. Comments and critiques always welcome.

I have looked at boat-load of color images. Every color combination you can imagine is out there. This pattern, with its unique border and bright white bacgroud just cries to be seen in color. I don't think I would do much to the dragon, but it is the bacground that needs to be enhanced to make the STORY (we all read into this piece) even better.

Can do later this AM

NO! It is just not a animal I usually associate with Christmas. Donkey - yes, Turkey - yes, Raindeer - yes, Lambs - yes, maybe even a cute kitten or puppy ...but I have never even seen a chicken in a Nativity Scene. Maybe if it was shown in a Roasting pan, I could agree.

You are absolutely correct. It is/was used as a typing shortcut as is often done. No disrespect intended.

Nice Work BUT......A Turkey maybe, but what does a Rooster have to do with Christmas?

I found this B&W image on-line a while ago. There is no Artist, owner or originator listed. The image is a little different with the fire-like border and skyline at the bottom. Not sure if the Dragon is contemplating destruction or guardianship. Anyway, I converted the image into a 11” x 14” Scroll Saw Pattern and have been trying to decide whether to cut it or not for several weeks now. My lady liked the Image but, wasn’t sure the thin linges of the wings were going be seen well against the white background, so I decided to add a second color, Grey, to highlight the wings and other features of the dragon, but still be mainly a B&W presentation. The cut panel is 5/32" thk. Solid Core Birch Ply affixed to a 1/4” BB Ply Air brush painted backer. Small details were cut using a Pegas #2/0 Spiral blade while the bigger cut outs areas were done using a Pegas #1 MGT R blade. Even with the many close parallel line cuts, the cutting was easier than expected. The Panel is set into a museum style narrow, ¾” wide, rail Floating Frame that was also painted black. And as usual, the assembled panel was protected with multiple coats of Deft Clear Gloss Lacquer. I'm tempted to break my own rule of only cutting a pattern once. I think I could do wonders with some coloring...red/yellow flame border, hazy smokey Red/Orange sky background like the city is burning, maybe different color for the wings. Would be a fun project. Comments and critiques always welcome. This project was an example of efective multi-tasking. I was cutting and paintig this project while the glue and paint dried on my Halloween Lantern Project. EDIT: Pattern posted in Pattern Exchange EDIT #2: Patterns posted in Pattern Exchange have been revised and reposted.

I found groups of Halloween images that were available for making papercut lanterns. I put together various images to create scroll saw patterns for a four sided Halloween Lantern with four different sides. I already had some Transparent Orange Acrylic Plastic from my Previous Night Light project that I added the Drafting Velum to, to make it translucent. I used 1/4“ Solid Core Birch Ply. The lantern is 5.5" square by 8" tall (not including the 1 1/2" hight hanging pinicle on top). I used my typical mitered corners construction technique and the box was painted Black inside and out. Not happy with the finish as there are blemishes that are visible in the Photos below. I can't sand and repaint with the plexi in place and the box all glued together. I wanted the lantern to be lit with a battery operated LED light of some kind. I was looking at various products in Hobby Lobby and came across this small ‘Bottle Twinkle Light set with 10 LEDs’ for $2.99. The battery compartment is shaped like a cork for use in a bottle. I drilled a 5/8” dia. Hole in the bottom of the lantern. I inserted it with the Lights bunched up as you can se in the Photo below, so it acted like a lightbulb and is easily inserted and/or removed. Perfect amount of light. I plan to buy some very lightweight Black, 12 to 18" long, chain and hooks for hanging. Comments and critiques always welcome.

I found groups of Halloween images that were available for making papercut lanterns. I put together various images to create scroll saw patterns for a four sided Halloween Lantern with four different sides. I already had some Transparent Orange Acrylic Plastic from my Previous Night Light project that I added the Drafting Velum to, to make it translucent. I used 1/4“ Solid Core Birch Ply. The lantern is 5.5" square by 8" tall (not including the 1 1/2" hight hanging pinicle on top). I used my typical mitered corners construction technique and the box was painted Black inside and out. Not happy with the finish as there are blemishes that are visible in the Photos below. I wanted the lantern to be lit with a battery operated LED light of some kind. I was looking at various products in Hobby Lobby and came across this small ‘Bottle Twinkle Light set with 10 LEDs’ for $2.99. The battery compartment is shaped like a cork for use in a bottle. I drilled a 5/8” dia. Hole in the bottom of the lantern. I inserted it with the Lights bunched up as you can se in the Photo below, so it acted like a lightbulb and is easily inserted and/or removed. Perfect amount of light. I plan to buy some very lightweight Black, 12 to 18" long, chain and hooks for hanging. Comments and critiques always welcome.

A clear Acrylic or Lacquer protective coating should help deter rapid fading. Unfortunately, direct sun will fade almost anything ovrt time. If you like dying your pieces, there are wood dyes available, both in powder and liqud forms. I have used them a long time ago. They work like a water based Stain. And, they do rasise the grain requireing additional sanding. Back then, I would coat the dyed project with Poly or Lacquer as a permanent protective finish. Better verity of colors than typical mineral sperit stains.

Very Nice. The cutting looks great and the coloring is spot on. Curious, what is the Backer? Dosn't look like wood. Looks like poster board or the like. Kind of too plain for my taste.

I apologise. I feel when something needs to be adderessed we should not hesitate to say so, and just not want to hurt a feeling. Sorry, but I did see cutting flaws. And, the painting was.... I was just trying to help. Store bought wood is kiln dried. And, that being said, I often find the wood from places like Lowes is not completely dry. Wood cut from a trees localy and not kiln dryed needs about 3-4 years to dry and must be properly stacked so air can get around all the time. Usualy does not happen. If you want good project ready wood, order from Ochooh or the like. You pay for what you get.

Just a 7W equivalent LEd Bulb in a candelabra base.

Just Google. Sorta like if you wanted to cut and color an image of a Parrot...search for photos of parrots to see their real life colors. Then pick and choose your paint colors accordingly. In yor project, you sorta used a flesh tone in the face area. I don't think it was intended to be a cartoon, so it just is not the color I would chose to use there.

A couple of things. I'm not a puzzle make. But, for what its worth, someone on here recently mentioned some mfgr makes a puzzle blade. I know nothing more. I think you really need to concentrate on your cutting skills. I see too many cutting boo-boos. Turning corners is tough to do cleanly, but it is a must for this kind of work that you have attempted. Slow down YOU and the saw speed. And, ofcourse, don't push and do use sharp blades. Then, the paint work is poor, and that is being kind. Not sure what wood you use, but it seems the pieces were not sanded adequately before you painted. If the wood is very grainy, soft or porus, a prime coat, sanded smooth, is needed befor painting. For small pieces like these I might use the small artist spray cans that come in many colors rather than brush work that just can't get the look you were after. As I said, I'm not a puzzle maker, but would think if pieces are to be painted, all surfaces of the individual pieces should be painted. Don't really know what the protocol is. I hope you take my critique without offense. I think the project is very unique and could be outstanding. Your attempt and decision to scrap is/was very brave. BTW, small pieces of solid wood, if not dry, can be further dried in a microwave. Thirty secons on high, let cool 5 minutes, repeat until dry. Really need a moisture meter to know. To be considered dry, moisture content should be under 7%.

I guess Square Jack O Lantern would have been a better name.

How are you making the image larger? I use Inkscape. Insert the image, use the trace path command. This creates a SVG that you can resize without loss of details. Line work can be made any width you want. I make mine very thin. This also allows you to change the color of the line work and fill. Worth learning if you want to use images from onine. I also use Inkscape to modify images that need bridges and other modifacations as added to be scrollable. Btw, I'm a Deft Lacquer fan also.

First things first. A big thanks to Barry (flarud) for the inspiration and kindly shared information. I read his post “Jacks” in Bragging Rights of Aug 21 and later his update on Aug 26. I really liked his “Jacks” as he calls them. They are simply a wood box with a Jack-o-Lantern face and the box painted Orange. He lit them up like you do for a Pumpkin Jack-O-Lantern. Boy oh boy are they cute. Just had to make some. I made eight, I call Box-O-Lanterns,using cheap cedar wood fence slats that are a nominal 5 ½” wide by very rough sawn to about 5/8” thick by 6’ long. I ran the slats through my planer, to make them a uniform ½” thick and clean on both sides. The rough sawn was just a little tooooo rough for me. I cut all the parts at one time, but due to a limited quantity of long clamps I had to assemble them one at a time. All cutting, assembly and painting was done in just two days. I purchased two SGV bundles of Faces from Etsy for just a few dollars. I chose eight that I resized, using Inkscape, to a 4 ½” width. This looked proportionally good to me in the 5 ½” wide box I had decided to make. All eight were cut with a Pegas #5 MGT R Blade in one two-hour cutting session. This was a mass production project, and done very quickly, to make my very rustic and rough version. I decided on the size and started cutting the wood before having the chance to contact Barry and find out what his sizes were. His are much smaller. My box is 5 ½” square using mitered corners, 10 ½” tall. The top and bottom are 6 ½’ square, glued up from a 5 ½” and a 1” piece. On top of the Top is a 4 ½” square piece I beveled just for looks, again, like what Barry had done on his. On top of that piece, I added a scroll cut “pumpkin” stem that is painted green. After assembly, just using glue, I rough sanded the entire assembly with 150 grit paper in my palm sander just to clean up glue squeeze out and to get rid of the pencil lines I made for glue-up. I used my small torch to add some burn marks and then lightly spray painted everything (except the stem) Pumpkin Orange, allowing the grain and torch marks to show. I went the cheap way for lights also. I purchased from Amazon two 4 packs of Accessory Cords that have a candelabra socket on one end (with a holder for a 1 ¼” hole mounting), an inline switch and a plug on the other end. These are like what is used in plastic decorations sold in stores. I also bought a package of twenty-five equivalent 7W Orange LED bulbs. I’ll have extras for a long time to come. This was a fun project. I did not make an overall pattern. The only patterns were the faces I chose to use, appropriately located in a 5 ½” x 10 ½´retangle, for positioning purposes. Had to take the following pic outside as they are to many for my photo booth. Daytime After dark. One up close. Hope you enjoy. Comments and critiques alwasys welcome. Thansk again Barry, I know you will be viewing this post soon.

Very, VERY, nicely done. I guess if you ae able to cut the pieces out cleanly, like you did, painting them and putting them back together must be a cinch. What kind of paints did you use? And, did you protect the entire panel with a clear coat of some kind? Details, you gotta give details!!!!!!!!! A nice narrow (3/4"wide), Museum Style Floating frame would work well for that image. Easy to make, using only the table saw and a n accurate miter sled.

I think you have the idea of enhancing a project with color down pat. For that hanging ornament, what did you do to the back side. I'm hoping you did the same coloring on the reverse side as well. That cutting, as colored, would look wonderful mounted on an appropriate colored backer and presented framed as an art panel. If yoou want to improve your coloration, look up pic of real subjects to get a better idea of what colors to use. Using real life colors is where the true art is.

OK, I did a little review of Steves project. If you cut these directly from his pattern, they are close to being 10" +/- wide. I did not realize how large they are and, beleive it or not, when I looked at your cutting and Steeves Pics, my eyes (brain) did not see the "Flower" pattern in the Wings. I just saw another well cut intricate Butterfly. After I realized what Steve had designed and you made, I really feel that you need to do something to HIGHLIGHT the pattern to make it visually stand out or it is just another Butterfly. I'm assuming you are not planning to raise the cut panel off the backer like steve suggested, then yes, the light wood cutting needs a dark background. I would probably mask off the area on the backer where the Butterfly will be attached and spray paint the surounding area with a dark color (any dark color you like would work). I might suggest you consider making the backer 11x14 so you could mount it in a nice stock size store bought frame (or make your own) when complete. In the pattern I NOW see Flowers, Leafs and Stems. If it was me, I would chose three or four colors (simple acrylic craft paint from Wallmart will work fine) Green for the leafs, brown or black for the stems and any color you might like (Red, Yellow, Pink, Blue, etc) for the flower petals. The cut-out in the center of the flowers could be a contrasting 4th color if you want to take that far (something like Blue Petals with a Yellow center). Then, using paper copies of the pattern I would cut away the areas of common color on each to create stencils. When cutting, cut the areas slightly larger that then the lines of the pattern to make sure the ares under the panel get full coverage. Use each stencil to paint the three colors being careful to register the stencils to match the cut panel. Allow dry time between each color. After you are happy you have got all the open areas painted, just glue the butterfly to the backer as you normally would. You could apply your finish to the cut panel before attaching to the backer, but I would not. I would now just apply a coat of Clear Gloss Lacquer or Polyacrylic to the entire assembled panel and mount in a nice frame. Note: When you use paper stencils, you need to be careful not to let paint get under the paper by applying the paint by dabbing with a stubble type brush and not by bruching the paint towards the paper. If you try these suggestions , please let us see the end result. I'm sure it will be outstanding.

These projects are not as much work as they might appear. Yes, the scroll saw images are delicate, but stack cutting makes the cutting time rather quick. Esch pattern was stack cut in one sitting in under 3 hours. The use of spiral blades does speed up the cutting also. The table saw work and assembly needs to be carefully done and in the corrrect order to avoid errors in the fit up. Strap clamps make the glue-up easy, but glue drying takes time...but not much work. If the wood is presanded, final sanding is minimal and a lacquer finish is easy-peasy...spray/dry/spray/dry, repeat as needed to get a nice smooth finish. Sanding between coats is unnecessary. So, these Night Light projects are a little time consuming, but, really, not much work.

Beautiful, very well done. I may just have to find that SG pattern. 250 is small number of holes for me. And, it looks like they need a colorful backer.

Yep, maybe Maple or Aspen! I liked the Lilsc Plexi, but there are many other colors. A bright Pink might be a good choice. Don't forget, if the Plexi is transparent, you need to apply the drawing velum to the inside face, or you are able to see the light bulb and socket.

I don't think allowing light through the top works for me. Half inch material would probably eliminate the warping also but may look too heavy. I'm thinking a decorative pinnacle that has a similar curved pattern to the botton added like a cross (+) to the 1/4" top would stop any warp. I need to play with the idea on the computer. It is not to late to add something on these lamp tops if it looks good.