Mini Intarsia Challenge - Jim's Toucan - simple intarsia and tutorial

[Fran1942]

Hey, Rick,
Nice job on Sammy. Sometimes paint looks better than natural wood. Some birds are so colorful, only paint can capture the colors.
Fran

[jlyn069]

Hi,
Rick your toucan looks great. I had to go copy you and raise the part around the eye like you did. It looks much better that way.

Jim I keep taking my toucan back to the barn and shaping more. At this rate, I will never finish him, or will have no wood left on him. LOL. I did try to copy the way you textured your beak. I am not sure I like what "I" did, but yours sure looked great. Everytime I make something, I have all in my head or notes on paper of what I want to shape, raise, lower, etc. Then I keep changing everything as I go along. It does drive me crazy trying to make it look real. I think I am satisfied with how he looks now so it is painting time. I am going to use watered down acrylic and or house paint. It lets the grain show through, like colored stain. I have such a hard time being satisfied with my shaping and the etc. I spend more time going in and out to reshape something and am never satisfied until I put the paints and stains on and then the finish and all my little unsatisfactory parts look fine.
Jackie

[KtownScroller]

Originally Posted by Wood Dog

Rick your Tucan looks great just don't let him fly over and sit on your clock. Going to have to paint mine too, don't have the proper wood, but I still wanted to make him. What kind of finish did you put over the paint?.....smooooooth looking.

Thanks Wood Dog! I used Minwax Fast-Drying Polyurethane Fast Drying Polyurethane - Oil-Based Clear Protective Finishes It always gives a nice finish.

[KtownScroller]

Originally Posted by jim_mex

Hi Rick - Well didn't Sammy just turn out great! You've really shown how to put paints to good use on top of some real nice cutting and shaping.

Thanks Jim! Coming from you that is a big complement.

Originally Posted by jim_mex

I asked the question before but could be you are holding the answer close to your chest eh! What type of paints did you use?

Sorry I failed to reply earlier. I meant to and forgot. I used FolkArt Acrylic Paint FolkArt® Acrylic Colors 2 oz. and Minwax Fast-Drying Polyurethane. The first coat of polyurethane is full strength and the following two coats is cut 50/50 with mineral spirits. I think the next time I do a similar finish I am going to skip the full strength and use four coats of the cut version. The cut version goes on like liquid glass and dries within an hour (not bad for an oil based finish). I don't think you can beat the stuff. It really looks good on stained wood too.

Originally Posted by jim_mex

I don't reckon I have to ask you if you enjoyed making Sammy - seems pretty obvious you hated every minute! - But thanks anyway for joining the challenge.

The challenge was fun. It was something different for me. Now if I had to do it like a true intarsia project I don't know if I would have the patience to fit everything. Who knows?

Thanks for such a nice pattern. That's the only reason I cut the toucan in the first place. It will be interesting to see how the other touc's look. To me it's not a competition. It's more like a show what you got kind of deal. Everyone is a winner. BTW - Your second toucan will be very hard to beat. I think it came out perfect!

[jim_mex]

Morning Rick - Thanks for the paint information - we used the same brand of top coat but unlike you I didn't cut mine back for the most stupid of stupid reasons - I ran out of mineral spirits mid project and was too lazy to go buy some! This was the first time I'd use Miniwax Poly as our local Home Depot has only just started stocking it. It seems to do a good job. Next time around I'm going to try cutting it back with naptha to see if it dries a little quicker.
Ref your comment about about trying natural wood intarsia. Personally 1 think you wouldn't have any problem, but apart from that, you've got a surefire winner with the technique you've just used and if you need any small gift ideas, particularly for kids, you now have another string to your bow.

Not for nothing but one other thing you have definitely gotten out of this challenge is a real snazzy catchy avatar! He's a beaut!


@Jackie - go easy with all that shaping else you are gonna end up with an egg and a pile of sawdust - LOL!

[Bluebird]

@Kathy
regarding the last steps of gluing-finishing-backboard, I do my steps like Jim has described.

I put one coat of either gel varnish or Minwax sealer before edge gluing all pieces together. (You can edge glue first and finish after if you want. Just make sure there is no glue coming through gaps cause that will stain the wood. ) Then I trace around the assembled project to cut the backboard and finally glue the project on it.

[Wood Dog]

My smaller version of Toucan is done. After I finished painting him I thought of the avocado and gold kitchen appliances in the 60 's.....getting old is still fun when you can come here for some entertainment. Looking forward to seeing many more birdies.
I know he leaves a lot to be desired, and critiques are very welcomed.

[Sally]

Ok - mine is done - I do have a few more gray hairs. I loved the challenge and the pattern - thanks Jim. Things I learned with this project.
!. Go to a larger blade right away when using hard wood - like yellow heart - instead of fighting it. UGH!
2. I tried to ebonize it but wasn't very happy with the results so I used black ink (from a bottle) instead. I did like the results. I have now ordered spirit based coloring.
3. The eye was a challenge!! I did use my forester bits and plug cutter. I redid it several times. I enjoyed using my new bits.

So again Jim thank you very much for the pattern and the hand holding - advice. It was fun and I learned a lot. I really enjoyed reading about everyones journey as they made this little guy. Great experience - as are all the challenges.

[Bluebird]

Oh great, our "birds paradise" is coming along well! Love what I see so far. It is really interesting to see all the different outcomes. That is one thing I like about woodwork, there is never two pieces exactly the same.
Well done for those who are finished. Weather is too nice here, and since summer is almost over, decided to spend most of the days outside. "Tooky" is still in its paper format!

[Fran1942]

Sally, very nice job.
Ink, hmm. Looks really good. Now off to the store to buy black ink. And maybe blue ink. I didn't realize they still sold in in the little jars.
Fran