preprius

Frank, this piece really good. I like to examine it before I read you description. This how I interpreted the scene. A beezy sunny day at the beach. The girl is surprised by standing on tippy toes. You captured (harvested) the breeze so well with the wood in the sky. I chose above word "harvested" is it used as energy capturing term. The grain and the cuts of the wood naturally make the viewer see the wind. The umbrella shows the direction of the wind. The abstract face is perfect. As i was reading your text, i thought I was going to see "beech" wood was going to be the beach sand. But the color wouldnt work. This piece is great.

Hi, I started here only 4 yrs ago. I struggled at first. I asked many questions on this village. I showed pictures. I asked more questions. After about 3 months, I made the decision to continue. I had an entry level scrollsaw and was deciding sell it or use it. So I searched this village and tried a few projects. I was hooked after getting past my struggles. I liked it so much that I got a better scrollsaw used, and it helped my struggles with tension of blades. This group also shares it's projects with pictures, it helps up my effort. There are many masters here, I can't ever match their quality. But I learned that my projects don't have to be compared to the masters. But I do like my projects. A few of them told me that patterns a guide, missing cuts or going outside lines is ok. Relaxing and enjoying the experience is important also. Lower your shoulders let the blade teeth do the work. Enjoy the detail work that the tool can do. The villagers also share their struggles. We now all pitch in from our learnings. Even me sometimes. So let us help. Ask us questions with pictures. Me. Mark Eason

Your inlays look so good it is NOT worth worrying about using the scraps.

Beautiful design. This inlay looks so interesting. So what is the scrap pieces used for?

So is it a wooden thumb?

Let's have fun. Purrfect?

I use Arm R Seal most of the time. I use so little. I had 1 quart for about 3 yrs. I formed a skin inside the can. So I poked a hole in the skin. After 3 yrs the skin was about 1/4" thick. So this time I bought a pint. Thank you for $/gallon cost list. Crap 180 / gallon. Each product has a different Sq ft coverage per gallon. So $ sq ft might also be and interesting comparison. But with Arm R Seal the can does have a shelf life so in my case the can won't cover the same sq ft as the label says. And it says to use 3 to 5 coats. Since I do functional scroll products I choose Arm R Seal for durability. 3 or more coats. I also use Osmo polyx. 1 coat. Tiny amount. I was surprised as it penetrates the wood like oil based Arm R Seal.

A cat crew lady sent me a Pic of her cat. The cat crew traps, neuter, and releases (TNR) feral cats. I saw I had a Cocobola piece of wood with nice grain. 1/4" thick 3 inches x 12 inches. Her pic would not look good on my 3 inch wood due to aspect ratios. So I found a cat pic on web and adapted swirl pattern to a stalking cat profile. So I made her a cat box. She is an artist also. She sketches paints other people's cats and then glues on cat whiskers that she collects. This box will hold her cat whiskers.

2 things come to mind. 1) you can change blades during the project. That is you don't need to always use spirals for the whole project. When you have to turn the piece in an area that a straight won't work then put in a spiral for how ever the cut needs it. 2) I have not done this, but you can turn the blade around on some scroll saws. This sometimes this helps eliminate the immediate need. It is great to use spiral. I don't mind spirals. It does add a huge advantage in some cases. off topic.... Bobbie Riggs? The tennis player? Yep I remember that from many years ago.

it must be time for a 'rum' run. Now scrollsaw the above line and hang it below the previous one.

With the pattern starting as a metal art piece, the sun had to connect to something. So we should be careful of patterns from other media.

Frank This is much better than a piece of metal. Everything looks well blended with both grain and colors. The 1 thing is the sun position. It just does not look right. In my mind it seems below the water level.

Very nice artistic bird house. An A frame head with 1 eye. Another hole in the chest for a block body. First thought I had was the term "block head". Almost a robot feel. Pretty soon you will see birds perched on the wooden arms and hands. Good job.

Those are really detailed. Both my grandfather's were involved in train industry. But not steam trains. Steam trains are my favorite.

my brother has cocobola issues. He said it is similar to poison ivy. The sap has toxins gets airborn. His doctor saw it on neck , hands , face.

grab a 3/4" board and make a bowl.

I joined this village and you were starting to add color a few months later. What an inspiration, to see you get better just as I started learning. Now your showing huge steps of progress in a different facet of scrollsawing. So a perfect time to ask a the precision question. Shortly after I started, I was trying intarsia humming birds, and I asked how to split the lines of patterns. I think many answers from the village was, we saw up to the lines but not split them.That was a relief to me. But I saw some youtube videos that described try to split the lines. So I was a bit confused. Another reason about precision. THANK You for taking the TIME to share your experience with many words and ART and PATTERNS. If someone sees your timeline of posts, galleries it could inspire them to get thru early frustrations. It did with me. I hope that they will ask questions to help get to your level of work. Of course this goes for many other experts in this village that show their work and expertise and take the time to teach us beginers. As I still have a day job, I have to choose my projects wisely. So I have not taken up Dave Monk's challenge of his beautiful western box. I need more practice.

Frank your really doing good. I had to really examine this piece for the winter theme. Just a touch of snow on the branch. You have done lots of fretwork. Now your doing intarsia. How do you compare precision? Me. Mark Eason

I don't see any tumble weeds, or a sajuaro catus. But it looks so cool. Staring down the wrong side of the barrel. The viewer must be in some real trouble. Me. Mark Eason

Very nice Frank. Great topic and execution. Yep I total like this. How thick was the purple heart? Me. Mark Eason

Welcome. I am in the far west, CA. The fun thing about scrolling the tolerance -/+ % is huge. Most of the time we don't use micrometers. We like pictures so we can be inspired by cool ideas. Oh they help with answering questions too. Me. Mark Eason

Yoho yoho - the artist wife for you. Well your artist and you have some great team effort. Me. Mark Eason

For outdoor usage, use titebond 3 glue. Cedar cleans up really nice when sanded to 600 grit. So letter color will depend one the background. Also make it stand out from the house colors. As for blades ... Pegas #3, #5, skip should work great. Flying Dutchmen "FD" Polar 3, or P5. Big blades for straight lines if you want. #3 or less for tight curves. I really like pegas modified geometry reverse mgtr . It has 5 teeth pointing up and it helps reduce the bottom from splintering.

it is pretty Jerry rigged. A computer fan with twisty that hold it.

I placed a floor fan on a rolling cart next to my scrollsaw. I have a small 12v fan on my magnifying lamp arm. The small fan gives a small air flow from right of the blade to left toward the big floor fan. I put a filter on the input of the floor fan. The purple dust shown on the filter is from 10 hours of cutting purpleheart.