FrankEV

Welll done and the color adds a nice touch, S. Good offers a lot of cute patterns. But here is my problem: What would I do with projects like this Wishing well? I don't do craft fairs or sell on line, and it would not be considered Fine Art at the Galery Co-op I belong to. Also, it is not something I would display in my own home (already have toooooo many pieces hanging on my walls) and I don't have anyone who needs a gift like this. So, I'm interested to know why you decided to make them and what do you plan to do with them?

If you design you portrait panels to be 8x10, 11x14 or 16x20 (all standard photo sizes) or 8.5 x11 or 11x17 (standard paper sizes) you can use commercial frames from places like Walmart, Michales, and Hobby Lobby. The less expensive frames usually come with glass and a cardboard backer which are discarded. However, I ahve found more and more of my portraits are not any of these standard sizes, so custom frames are necessary. My custom frames are usually simple 3/4" thk x1 3/4" wide and usually Poplar, rabbeted 1/4 x 1/2" and mitered on table saw, no glass. I use a homemade miter sled to get relatively neat accurate miters. I glue the miters with Titebond Ultimate using a frame making strap clamp and reinforce the joinsts with frame V-nails. I have standerdized my portrait panels to 5/32" thk cut panel and a 1/4" backer, so the 1/2" deep reabbet always works well. Frame finish depends on portrait subject. I have done almost every thing from distressed to, most recently, high gloss Black Lacquer. Most often I use various Minwax stains and finish/protect with either Clear Spray Poly or Wipe-on Poly. I have use Polycrylics, but not a big fan. Application of a pre-stain and a lot of sanding makes for a quality frame. My portrait panels are set in the frame loose using framing points (glasier points also work). Since Scroll Work portraits look best when hung flat on wall and are very lightweight, I install just one small saw tooth tap-in picture hanger centered on the back of the top rail. A very small headed nail is all that is required to hang on wall and they do almost no damage to wall.

Full 3/4" thick. I did mine from Walnut and Maple.

That be me!

Watch for a Private Message from me.

You did good!!!

This one was very challenging as the cuts were so close to each other. I use additional copies of the printed pattern to make rough painting stencils, but it is still not easy getting the colors in the correct locations. I also play with shading of the larger areas to get different colors in different areas without worring where the exact cut lines are. Thanks for the kind words.

Very nice work, I'm sure she will love it. I'm usualy not critical of your work as it is always well done. In this case It is not a critisim of your work but of your choice of using all Script Capitals for the name. It is just my opinion but it does not read well. I think it would have been much better as a Script word "Lisa".

I found this free stencil pattern on-line. I converted it into a scroll saw pattern and sized it to fit a 5/32” x 10” x 11” Solid Core Maple cut panel that was affixed to a hand painted ¼” x 12” x 13” BB ply backer. All cutting completed with Pegas #2/0 Spiral blades The colored portion of the backer was painted with Artist Acrylic paints while the 1” wide perimeter mat area of the backer was painted rattle can spray Chocolate Brown for a strong contrast with the natural Maple panel. As usual, I protected the finished panel with multiple coats of Deft Clear Spray Gloss Lacquer. Once again, the panel is set loose in a 1 3/4” wide Poplar Frame stained with Minwax Honey Maple and protected with multiple coats of Minwax Clear Gloss Wipe on Poly. I plan to remake the frame for this piece as I am unhappy with the corner miter joints. Comments and Critique welcome.

After first cutting, a C. Dearing Cat Pattern, I also found and converted a few other free Cat images into scroll saw patterns. This group of Cat portraits is the result. All cuttings are done in 5/32” solid core Maple ply. Backers are hand painted 1/4 BB ply. I used Pegas #2/0 and #0 Spiral blades to cut the patterns. All panels were hand painted with Artist Acrylic’s and finished with multiple coats of Deft Clear Gloss Spray Lacquer. All panels set loose in 1 3/4” wide Poplar frames that were finished with multiple coats of Black Lacquer. Grey Black Cat - 9” x14” Black and White Cat – 9” x 14” Orange Cat - C. Dearing – 8” x 14” Comments and Critique welcome.

A return Happy, Healthy and Safe New Year to you and yours as well as to all our SVV scrolling faimily.

Just a fact that most of the older generation leather fire helmets were black. Today, the FD's that have upgraded to better protection and better visibility have gone to the light weight composite material helmets that are bright YELLOW.

Our furry and feathered friends do make for very nice pattern subjects, don't they? Very nice and well cut.

Bumped up to top. Check out my updated original post.

Not to hijact the thread, but I'm curious. I had seen in some posts with photos of members shops, someone had a mag lamp that was much larger that these ring type lamps and rectangular. I would guess the mag glass was like 6"x8" or maybe even bigger. Not sure if it actally was a lamp also. My biggest objection to my mag/lamp is the size of the viewing glass. Anyone know about physically larger mag lamps?

I think I'm going to try the Black Lacquer on the frames for these panels. I allways sand to 600 or even to 1500 and apply a wood pre-stain conditioner before staining and also used a Lacquer wood conditioner before applying clear lacquer. I have also painted with All-in-one Paint/Primer. However, I have never primed before applying lacquer. Wondering what kind of primer do you suggest?

I don't know the brand, but mine looks exctly like the HF one in the link above. Howver, mine is LED and does not generate any heat. Also, mine is a 5X lens and I fine it works great for me. Even though, under the 5X magnifier, my blade control may look ragged, to the naked eye, the cut line is very smooth.

I think the tray is absolutly fantastic. Beautiful!!! Would love to see some close up pic's and maybe give us some details like who's Pattern, wood thickness, blades used, etc. We love details. I use rattle can spray Lacquer on most of my panels. Yes, the fumes can get to you and actually give you a little buzz. Need to have good ventilation and wear a mask. But I do like the fine durable finish you can get with Lacquer and the fact it enhances the natural wood color and will not darken. And, it drys fast, alllowing ease of applying multiple coats with just very light sanding in between.

Interesting piece. Nice cutting except for around the his right cheek. Maybe the photo, but something does not look correct. You asked, so the following are my thoughts, for whatever they may be worth to you. I love to add color to my work also. However, in this case I'm not overly enthused with your coloring efforts. The background staining is not saturated enough alowing the grain and backer board color to show through. In some cases this might be nice but in this case it looks unfinished. I can also plainly see white spots of the backer showing through the cutting or it may be the unstained edge cuts. Why they are there should be addressed and corrected. When adding color, making sure all the cut edges are stained is a stiff PITA. I know, been there done that. The yellowish stain you used on the cut panel is OK(maybe?), but the orange in the fire just does not work as I think what you were looking for.. AND, AND, the pinkish stain on the frame...no, nope, not at all, does not work. A frame should complement and enhance the work, not overpower and distract from it. AND, the top and bottom of the frame is toooo close to the cut panel. Portaits need to be framed twice, once on the panel itself and then with a pysical frame around the panel providing ballance and symetry to the entire piece. In this case you are squashing the image. And, the width of frame rails and stiles just dont look correct to me, but that is a very personal opinion. Look at commercial frames to get an Idea what width looks the best to you. Also, your frame making needs improvement. The right bottom corner looks bad, but I'm realizing it may be how the photo is cropped. Photos can make a piece look better then in person, and can also make it look much worse. Let me apologise in advance if my thoughts are not to your liking. I find in this forum members tend to only offer positive comments to work posted even when not really deserving. I've seen a number of you previous posts and I know you can do a much better job if that is what you really want and strive for.

Fortunately the stacked panel was not heavy. I attempted to keep as much panel on the table as possible. I would orient the panel on an angle to the right or left of the back of saw as much as possible so as much of the panel was on the table as possible. Otherwise, I just supported the panel with my hands. Like I said, it became more difficut as some of the large parts was cut out. By using blue tape to hold the cutouts in place, I was able to make the panel "more" rigid so the overhang did not drop too badly. This project was a very easy cut (other than the thin areas between cutouts) so the cutting went quite fast. If this was a more intricate pattern I don't think it would be feasable with out creating extensions for the table to support the panels.

My thought exactly and already agreed to by the client. Thanks

Very Carefully. I used a spiral blade so no spining of work. Did have to reposition ocassionally from one side of the saw to the other just to make the overhang off the table was not so bad. The Pegas saw has a 21" throat and the cutting was actually only 18" wide, so you can manipulate the piece working the cut basically from one side only.

I was commissioned to make this pair of Chinese Dragons panels. The client chose this Dragon from a group of different Dragons I provided. The patterns were found on-line and had to be only slightly modified to make it scrollable. The original had the “ribs” (for lack of a better word) bridging to the opposite side making a multitude of dropouts. The cut panels are 1/8” x 20” x 30” BB ply mounted on a painted black 1/4" x 20” x 30” BB Ply Backer. The cut panels were stack cut to make mirror images with good side up. Shelf liner was applied to both sides to minimize possible tear out. All cutting was completed with Pegas #1 spiral blades. A number of blades broke, mostly because it was difficult to thread the blade from below without kinking the blade. Keeping the panel flat while cutting was difficult, especially so after some of the larger areas were cut out. Used a lot of blue tape to hold cutouts in place to help keep the panel somewhat rigid while cutting. Yes, the little piece in the Dragon’s nose had to be glued back in after the panel was affixed to the backer. The 20” x 30” BB ply panels were special ordered from Ocooch Hardwoods. I did not find the prices to be too unreasonable for this special order. They responded to my request quickly and the order was received within just a few days. Great service. Now here is where I need some help and opinions. I need to make frames for these panels and cannot decide what width rail/stile I should use. I typically use 1 3/4" wide, but not sure if that will look the best for these panels. Often large frames are narrow (3/4”) or, like large paintings, use a much wider (2 1/2” +) that may be more appropriate. Please provide you opinion on what size I might use and tell me why. You might want to let me know what color the frame should be also. Thanks for you help. EDIT 12/22/21 I made the frames from 1"wide x 3/4" thick Poplar. I think the 1" frame width works well for these Chinese Dragon mirror image panels. I did a significant amoiunt of hand sanding to obtain a very smooth surface. I then applied two coats of a Rustolium Black Primer sanding between coats, again to a very smooth finish after which I applied multiple coats of Rustoleum Black Lacquer. Just as I was finishing the final coat, the nozzle on the spray can stuck in the open (spraying) position and made a mess, but fortunately not on the frames. After drying almost 24 hours, I found there was some areas of blush. Two light coats of Deft Clear Gloss Lacquer did a nice job of getting a bright uniform finish. This commission project was difficult in many respects, but I feel it came out fairly well and am hoping the clients are happy. I'm not sure I would want to tackle a large panel project like this again. Thanks again to all that offered comments and advice. When appropriate and a black frame is needed, I think I will be using Black Lacquer again.

Peter, Welcome to Florida for the Winter. I'm a little further South in Ormond Beach (Just North of Daytona) on the East coast of Central Florida. I have a very small shop also. Just 8'x12' in an outdoor shed. I do not have a garage so this was the best I could manage on my very small piece of property. After being here in Florida now almost 8 years and dealing with very warm temps for most of the year, when the temps drop into the 40's F, it feels really cold. However, a small electric heater makes is comfortable and lets me work in my shop all winter. Of course I also had to instal a small AC unit for those hot summer days.

Great job. They will be cherished for a long time (no pun intended). Much better gifts then the 7 Santa Portraits I made for my family and friends.