FrankEV

The simple line drawings of RED LIP LADIES IN HATS are prolific online and most are stock images that cost little or nothing to obtain. There are also a lot the simple line drawings of RED LIP LADIES and RED WINE. With only minor conversion work needed, using Inkscape to make scrollable patterns from these simple line drawings is a snap. The patterns were each designed for an 11x14 panel. However, for these projects I printed them out scaled down in Adobe to fit 8x10 panels. As usual, the cut panels are 5/32” Maple Solid Core Ply and backers are 1/4” BB Ply. The backers were painted Black with, of course, Red for lips, accessories, fingernails, and wine. And, as usual, painting was done with an Air Brush using Artist Acrylic Air Brush Paints. Although the individual panels were rather simple cuts, using mainly Pegas #2/0 spiral blades and Pegas #1 MGT R blades for the smooth long cuts, the 10 panels did take quite a while to complete. Handling each individually, from start to finish, was quite time consuming. Then there was my choice to make gang frames. IMHO, the smaller panels look better in narrow rail frames, especially when ganged. Although all the construction is like what I do when I make my standard 1 3/4” wide rail frames, the narrow rails are difficult work with. This added a lot of time to the project. The frames were primed and painted Matt Black. Between our cruise, major yard projects, dealing with a stomach bug, and slipping in the Abstract Art Cat and Dog cuttings, this is the results of what has been occupying my shop time over the past few weeks. Comments and critiques always welcome.

OK, just could not leave it with just a Cat (see my post ‘Cat Picasso Style Abstract’), I had to make a Dog. No free SVG file this time, so I had to develop my own pattern from an Abstract Pop Art image I found on-line. Tried to stay away from any specific breed. This time the panel is 12” by 16”. Otherwise, all information is the same as the Cat so no need to repeat here. I will just say, although the finish product is striking, I will not be inclined to do more like these too soon. Although the cutting is quite simple, painting the colors is a SPITA. I’ll post the pattern in Pattern Exchange. Maybe some out there who like to do segmental type panels can adopt the pattern for such. Painting individual pieces would be much simpler and, the end result should be just as striking.

Very well done. Like the frame...nice to have access to real framing materials!

Just getting back into the shop after a lengtly absence. We were away on a long cruise. Then I needed to complete two significant yard projects. On top of all that I have been suffering with a stomach bug for over three weeks. However, when possible I have been doing some cutting on a multi-part project, but I had to interrupt it to do this Abstract Art piece that I found on-line as a free .SVG download. I still needed to do a little tweeking to make it work as a 12’ x 18” Scroll Saw pattern. Cutting the 5/32” solid core ply was very easy using a Pegas #1 Mgt R blade. All coloring was done with an Air Brush using Artist Acrylic Air Brush Paints. Due to the many different colors the painting and finishing time was long. Dry time…ugh! Typical 1/4" ply backer. The frame is a 3/4” wide rail Gallery Style Floating Frame, painted Silver. There are a lot of shadows in the photo and the color of the frame is washed out. It looks a lot better when hanging on a wall and viewed from the normal four feet away. I’ll post the pattern in Pattern Exchange for anyone who would like it.

I atttempted to send you a message but got a message that you cannot receive meassages. I had some thoughts about your projects shown herein that I was not confortable sharing in this open forum.

Yes, the white and green are on the cut panel. The black, red and blue are on the backer.

The first project is from a sock Image titled “Life’s a Gamble”. The conversion to a 12”x12” scrollable Pattern was mainly adding many bridges in the Lettering. There was no special reason for doing this project, other than wanting to take a break from doing complicated patterns for a change. Although, it did seem a little appropriate for me, as I will reach my 82 Birthday in May. I guess I should be happy the "gamble" is still paying off. The Cut Panel is 5/32” thick Solid Core Birch Ply cut using mainly Pegas #2/0 Spiral Baldes and Pegas #1 MGT R Blades. The cut panel is affixed to a 1/2" thick Sanded Ply Backer. Color was added using Artist Acrylic Air Brush Paints. The close-up photo shows some cutting and painting defects that are not TOO noticeable when viewed from a standard 4 feet away. This will hang in my shop. The second project is more of my normal work, yet this too was a very quick cut. There are many illustrations in what I call the “Red Lips” category, by many different Artist both known and unknown. Many of which are available from the stock illustrations sites and are royalty free. I’ve been eyeing these illustrations for some time now. I found this “Lady (with Red Lips) in a Cowboy Hat” illustration on-line and it seemed like it would make a scrollable pattern. I proceeded with the conversions even though it was obvious from the start that it required the addition of many bridges. Once again, the cut panel is 5/32” thick Maple Solid Core Ply and the backer is 1/4" thick BB Ply. The relatively easy cutting was done using a Pegas #1 MGT R Blade in just one, two-hour, sitting. Yes, this is another colored piece using Artist Acrylic Air Brush Paints. However, only two colors were applied to the backer… Red, for the lips of course, and everything else black. The assembled panel was protected with multiple coats of a Clear Gloss Acrylic finish. I also hid many of the bridges with Black paint applied by brush. The Frame is my simple 1 3/4" wide Poplar Rails finished with Black Lacquer that had a final top-coat application of a Clear Matt Lacquer. As allways, comments and critiques always appreciated. I will post the Patterns in Pattern Exchange for anyone who might wish to have.

Great work. I cut that pattern a long time ago. Always thought is was nice but kind of boring since it did not read well in the 3/4" thick Walnut I used. The addition of the Epoxy Resin really makes the image stand out. Since mine never sold, I just might try adding it to mine. Got nothing to lose.

Not sure if LED's would work, but you are certainly free to try. For those that work with colored epoxy, this could be a project worth considering. Since you asked so nice I will post, In Pattern Exchange, my 11.5x19 (printed on Super B size paper) and a 10.25x17 version (printed on 11x17 paper) for those who my like to try this pattern.

I kind of believe that is the intent!

There are a lot of things that happened to the panel itself that makes it a throw-a-way. Some of the things that happend are: While trimimg the panel to its final dimensions, the saw cought the panel and put a big gouge on the back side, when lifting the pattern, the face of the panel gave up some fibers so I could not get a nice flat finish of the black, after the panel was assembled and during handling the paint surface got mared that I had to touch-up, but in real life, the touch-up is noticeable. So, I'm only being hard on myself for the lack of concentration and just stupid foul-ups that occured. The pic does not tell the whole story. I liked how it looked in the original Black/Green/White Image and was really wondered if others would like it as well, or in other words is it worth my time and effort to remake it. From comments so far I'm thinking it might be a good Idea to recut and paint it while being a lot more careful. Thanks for your nice comment.

I cut the Pink Panther cartoon character quite a while ago. Although I had a lot difficulties making this projects, I really wanted to know if this image, as painted, is a suitable scroll saw preentation. I know I can do the cutting and colonization better if I redo it.

Yes, I cut everything with the Scroll Saw. The wiskers were cut using a Pegas # 1 MGT R blade. Narrow long streight or curvedd parallel line cut outs are probably the hardest scroll saw cutting there is. I"ll admit the wiskers are actually a little wider than the printed pattern.

I really should not be posting this in Bragging Rights as it is nothing to brag about. I found this haunting image of a panther face and attempted to duplicate it just as it appeared...Bright Green and White against a solid Black background with a very faint grey-black shading. Although a relitively easy cutting, suffice to say things did not go smoothly as expected, and one ‘bugger’ led to another. I had many problems with the painting, especially the finish of the Black. And then, after deciding to make a Gallery style floating Frame for this piece it took three attempts to get the size correct and the mitered joints, tight. I used 5/32” solid core birch ply for the cut panel and 1/4” BB Ply for the backer. The panel size is really oddball at 11 1/8” by 19”. The cutting was done with Pegas # 1 MGT R blades for all the long-curved cut outs and Pegas #2/0 spiral blades elsewhere. The assembled panel was protected with multiple coats of Clear Closs Acrylic finish. The frame was finished with Black Lacquer. I’m most interested in comments about the image and If I should consider doing a remake as I think this first attempt will become fuel for my Firepit.

Very nicely done. It would have been nice to have posted a pic of Bear with the cutting to see how well you did capturing the likeness. I nice dark frame witll make it pop.

I wanted to reply with a funny chicken joke, but just could not come up with anything. So, I'll just say: GreatCutting, will make very nice gift.

I've been President of my one person "Grumpy Old Man" Club for many years. About 41+ years ago at age 40, my first Grandson was born. At that time I said "I'm too young to be called Grandpa so just call me Grumps". The Monika stuck and I have been called Grumps by all my 'Grands' and many others, ever since. When I first started to Scroll, over four years ago, one of my earliest projects was this sign that is always on display on or near my Desk. BTW, nice cutting!

I found a B&W line image of a ‘Long Hair Shaggy Cat’ that I converted into an 11” x 14” scrollable pattern. The cut panel is 5/32” Maple solid core Ply affixed to a 1/4" BB Ply Backer. All cutting was done using Pegas # 2/0 Spiral blades. The cutting is challenging since there are many long, narrow, curved cut-out areas that are very close to each other. The lack of clear “white” space around the image was a deliberate choice to present an elegant, formal-like, portrait of this ‘Regal’ feline. Colorization of both the backer and cut panel, were done using Air Brush Artist Acrylic Paints. The finished assembled panel was protected with multiple coats of Clear Gloss Acrylic. The Frame is my standard 1 3/4" wide rails, made from Poplar, primed, and painted a dark Expresso Brown. I’ll post the pattern in Pattern Exchange for anyone who might be interested. This cutting will look good as a B&W with maybe only color added for the Eyes and Pink Nose. Comments and critiques always welcome.

This post got me thinking. I have been a advocate of using a frame to complete an Art panel project. Frames can be either readily available commercial frames (such as those available from Walmart, Hobby Lobby, etc.) or custom made, like I do for all of my recent work. The big advantages to custom made are: lower cost to make than buy, and panel size is not of concern as a custom frame can be any size. Frame construction can be very basic or very ornate and complecated. Equipment to make custom "profesional" quality frames is very expensive and not suitable for the common hobby type shops most of us operate. Also, most Scroll Saw Art panels celebrate the wood we use to create the art and overly ornate frames are not often suitable. Therefore, I find the frames for my work need only be simple flat frames similar to the many quality commercial frames on the market at rediculous prices. I my case, as I produce a lot of Art Panels, it is absolutely necessary to keep the cost of framing my work to a minimum. I have developed a method to make, in my opinion, reasonably nice simple flat frames that celebrate the Art panel while keeping the cost per frame to a minimum. I have posted a short tutorial in the Learning Center in Works in Progress & Tutorials that show the step by step method I use to make my frames.

It does not HAVE to be in color. As long the cut line can bee seen. Shades of grey will work.

Going to jump off the Blade topic and make a comment about this Pattern itself. It is a great pattern of Clint but I personally find it terribly difficult to cut any pattern that is just Black and white with no line work visible. I cannot see where the blade is while cutting and the thickness of the actual line work is very wide, so the cut out areas are not well defined, i.e.; the resulting cutouts may actually become somewhat larger than the pattern designers intented. The raggedness I saw in your cutting was definately part of the pattern itself. However, if the line work was thinner and more visible your cut path may have been slightly smoother. Here is the same pattern, converted to a thin red line with a grey fill. I think today, most pattern makers are adopting this way of offering a pattern as I've noted that a lot of the member herein have mentioned that they also prefer to cut patterns that are presented in Red lines with a Grey fill. Just something to think about.

I developed this Roaring Bear Pattern from an Image I found on-line. I invite you to visit my post in Pattern Making for a description of my experiment in creating this pattern. Also, you will note that my pattern is kind of backwards to the way most patterns result in creating a scrolled image. Since the bear is predominately Black, the cut-outs exposing the background are light colors as if sunlight was reflecting off the Bear’s fur. The pattern was sized to fit a 12” by 12” inch panel. I chose to cut the image in a 5/32” thick Walnut Solid Core Ply using Pegas #2/0 Spiral blades. The backer is 1/4” thick BB Ply. Most of the coloring was done with Artist Acrylic Air Brush Paints with a few highlights done by brush. The assembled panel was protected with multiple spray coats of a Clear Gloss Acrylic. I made my usual 1 3/4” wide rail Poplar Frame that I stained and finished with multiple coats of Wipe-On Poly. I ‘m looking forward to your comments and critiques on this experiment in pattern making and my…possibly poor…choice of using Walnut for the cut panel.

Ther are die hard straight blade users and die-hard Spiral blade users. And some that use both. I am one that uses both but prefer, for most of my intricate patterns I like to do, to use spirals. They alow me to complete a pattern faster because I don't have to spin the work and stop at tight corners as much. Like everything, if you want to use spiral blades you have to learn how to use them. Part of that includes; clamping, knowing witch way to cut, what size drill holes to use, how to get nice straight or long smooth curved lines, and, yes, how to deal with the fuzzies. All of which I have been able to do fairly succesfully. That being said, I agree, spirals are not for everyone. Yes you should concentrate on perfecting your cutting skills using straight blades if that is how you are most comfortable. If in the future you decide to try spirals again, do so with an open mind and a willingness to learn how, and dedicate a fair amount of time to the learning curve. From the sound of your frustrations I'm guessing patience is not neccessarily your strong suit. Let me say that your cutting of Clint isn't bad, but could probably have been a little less ragged, but I'm not familiar with the pattern, so I don't know if some of that is the pattern itself. However, I would be interested if you cut the same image with straigth blades how much better or worse it would look. Hope you do not take offence to any of this. Just trying to be of some help.

Great image and great cutting. I've worked with burl when I turned bowls. How was cutting such thick tricky material? And, what size drill bit did you use? Long smll bits are hard to find.

Beieve me the cutting is not clean. The painting hides a lot of the cutting flaws. Yeah, 4 feet away it looks pretty good, but I know how difficult it was to cut cleanly. Do appreciate the nice comment though.