Sarah's magpie - Finished! + WIP photos - Scroll Saw Woodworking & Crafts Message Board

jim_mex · 10-26-2009, 12:46 AM

A while back, one of our newcomers to the board, Sarah Evans - the dragon lady from Wales- asked my opinion on a beautiful design she had produced of a pair of magpie's in flight which she wanted to offer as a possible future intarsia challenge. I was a bit flattered to be asked and at first glance I thought it was much too complicated a piece for newbies and recent newcomers to intarsia including myself and suggested she contacted Bruce for his opinion. Since then I've had a rethink and decided instead of offering challenges to others it was time for me to raise the pole and give myself a new challenge. No way was I prepared to tackle the full design but I fancied having a go at producing one of the magpies.

I have to admit I was attracted to the design because the magpie is one of my favourite European birds - attractive, scandalous, audaciously cheeky and attracted to bright shiny objects - come to think of it, much like Norma my wife! With Sarah's permission I redrew the pattern of one of the birds as a vector drawing and this weekend I started to cut the pieces. 89 in total (correction now 94, but who's counting!) which I reckon is about 75 more than on any other project I've tackled to date!

I decided to post this as a work in progress mainly to give me an incentive to finish it rather than lose face so at the moment I'm taking a bit of a risk and living dangerously as I'm not sure how this is going to turn out

I'm going to use two woods, hard maple for the white parts and mahogany which I will ebonize to a blue black colour. I would have preferred to have used a hardwood like American red oak or a similar but unfortunately couldn't source anything locally to suit.

I'm looking forward, somewhat masochistically, to shaping this piece which I think is really going to test how far I can push the box. So folks, wish me luck and stay tuned for a success or a disaster and to give a helping hand if and when I scream!

Oh - and why aren't I showing anything at the moment - well my first disaster struck late afternoon whilst I was assembling 3/4's of the cut pieces on a board to check the fit. Our frenchie ran into the shop and as I turned around to boot him out my workcoat caught on the edge of the assembly board tipping all the pieces onto the floor! Why this never happens on a clean floor only the workshop spirits know but after almost 2 hours sifting through sawdust, and general shop rubble I'm still three pieces missing and not in the frame of mind to finish the cutting tonight! Hopefully tomorrow I'll have something to show. Meanwhile here's Sarah's original design. I'm having a go at the the lower of the two birds - and if i do manage to pull this off I fancy completing the full design

Assuming this works out ok I'll look at the possibility of offering this has a challenge, probably after Christmas when folks generally have a little more time on their hands

Update at 9 Nov 2009

Here we are, a final photo and a flashshow showing different views of the shaping. I didn't quite have the right natural light for this main shot but I kinda like my Maggie caught by the late afternoon Mexican winter sun.

For newcomers to this thread please read on to see my work in progress details

Click here to see the Flash slideshow of the finished views

saw dust · 10-26-2009, 02:53 AM

Jim I am sure you will do a great job. Every piece of work of yours I have seen has been great. Also look forward to your helpful notes and ideas frome your work. Like you say after Christmas I hope to be able to get back to intarsias. (still have to do my toucan!!) saw dust

scrollpup · 10-26-2009, 02:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jim_mex

Oh - and why aren't I showing anything at the moment - well my first disaster struck late afternoon whilst I was assembling 3/4's of the cut pieces on a board to check the fit. Our frenchie ran into the shop and as I turned around to boot him out my workcoat caught on the edge of the assembly board tipping all the pieces onto the floor!

Sorry Jim...done gave all my sympathy to Carter the other day....(ROFL)!!

Good luck on your new bird!

Jerry

Wood Dog · 10-26-2009, 03:36 AM

Hope this spilling things on the floor is not contagious, as you and Carter have done it. Hope you find your pieces.
Good luck on your project, I am certain you will succeed.

lwn57 · 10-26-2009, 03:45 AM

Jim. Perhaps your problem comes from doing just one. I'm not the superstitious sort but the nursery rhyme does say:
One for sorrow, two for joy,
Three for a girl, four for a boy,
Five for silver, six for gold,
Seven for a secret that must never be told.

ubgoofy2003 · 10-26-2009, 04:21 AM

Jim, that is a beautiful pattern that Sarah did. Did she create it herself, or get it from a picture. I have to comend you on your endeaver. That's going to take you some time to complete. I started an Intarsia some time ago & still need to finish it. Maybe you can inspire me to do that. Good Luck & hope you can complete it without further problems. Perk

jlyn069 · 10-26-2009, 04:31 AM

Sarah,
Your pattern is terrific.

That would be quite a challenge but fun at the same time.

Jim,
Sorry all your pieces hit the floor.

You know what they say about wearing loose fitting clothes while working with power tools!!! LOL... Now you know another reason not to wear them... THis is a great project and I am looking forward to your WIP pictures. You can do it and I bet it will look great.
Jackie

jim_mex · 10-26-2009, 05:26 AM

Thanks folks for the encouragement
As a couple of you have commented on WIP notes as to how I might go about this project I'll post a few comments as this project develops, starting with this one regarding the pattern and the cutting.

1) The pattern - I drew the pattern up as a vector drawing from the original design so i could scale it up to a reasonable size for cutting. This project is approximately 12" square. After scaling up the vector pattern I then resized the pattern lines to a 0.25 point size which is almost the same thickness of the blade I used to cut the pattern - a Flying Dutchman #1 UR. I used a red pattern line which for me works much much better than using a black line

For the project I used hard maple at around 5/8" thick and mahogany of 7/8" thickness.

2) The cutting -

Having to accurately cut so many smallish pieces I looked for an easy way to cut the pattern so that the pieces would fit well and came up with the idea of breaking the pattern up into what are effectively a number of segmentation style cut areas. See the following diagram where each colour block represents one piece of wood - The blocks marked with an X indicate the sections of maple

Once I'd opted for this route cutting the individual blocks was fairly simple, for example: Looking at the lower wing and the three banks of small feathers cut from one piece of wood, I started by accurately cutting the boundary between that piece of wood and the larger wing shoulder piece above it. I then cut the leftmost feather of the uppermost row and having cut this first feather I then cut the next one and then the next until the full row had been cut. I used the same method for the second row and then for the bottom row.

Using this segmentation cutting technique any slight deviations from the pattern lines are easily accommodated and the only need for accurate cutting is for the pattern lines which mark the boundary between the different blocks of wood - or colours - as shown in the drawing

One thing I have changed in my cutting style is that I now prefer to cut exactly on the centre of the pattern line and trust to my precision to get good fitting pieces. Before I tended to cut more to the waste side of the pattern line and then ended up having to rectify the cut shapes.

Ok - that's all for tonight. Tomorrow I'll post a photo of the cut pattern and in the meantime I'll be mulling over how i'm going to tackle the shaping of this project.

jim_mex · 10-26-2009, 05:39 AM

@perk - this is an original design by Sarah. Fom what i've seen of her work she is very talented and I hope she will be showing us more of her designs in the future

@Jerry - I have to admit that when the pieces fell the first thing I thought about was Carter's jigsaws - LOL! I did at least have the good sense to number all the pieces on the backside as I cut them so apart from the lost pieces it wsn't a total disaster

@Lewis - you could be right pal but i'm sticking at one for now!

@saw dust, WD & Jackie- having cheerleaders like you guys sure does help! Thanks again

JohnB · 10-26-2009, 05:55 AM

Quote:

@saw dust, WD & Jackie- having cheerleaders like you guys sure does help! Thanks again

Jim, that may be so, but I'm sure you'd prefer cheerleaders like these

I'm looking forward to seeing the maggie done mate.

10-26-2009, 03:36 AM	#4
Wood Dog Senior member--Absolutely Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: MA USA Posts: 3,909	Hope this spilling things on the floor is not contagious, as you and Carter have done it. Hope you find your pieces. Good luck on your project, I am certain you will succeed. __________________ WD

10-26-2009, 03:45 AM	#5
lwn57 Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Mesa, AZ Posts: 79	Jim. Perhaps your problem comes from doing just one. I'm not the superstitious sort but the nursery rhyme does say: One for sorrow, two for joy, Three for a girl, four for a boy, Five for silver, six for gold, Seven for a secret that must never be told. __________________ *Lewis* A day without sunshine is like, night http://lewis-intarsia.blogspot.com/ http://picasaweb.google.com/intarsiatore/IntarsiaGallery

10-26-2009, 05:26 AM	#8
jim_mex 'Senior' member - no way! Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Pachuca, Mexico Posts: 2,361	Thanks folks for the encouragement As a couple of you have commented on WIP notes as to how I might go about this project I'll post a few comments as this project develops, starting with this one regarding the pattern and the cutting. 1) The pattern - I drew the pattern up as a vector drawing from the original design so i could scale it up to a reasonable size for cutting. This project is approximately 12" square. After scaling up the vector pattern I then resized the pattern lines to a 0.25 point size which is almost the same thickness of the blade I used to cut the pattern - a Flying Dutchman #1 UR. I used a red pattern line which for me works much much better than using a black line For the project I used hard maple at around 5/8" thick and mahogany of 7/8" thickness. 2) The cutting - Having to accurately cut so many smallish pieces I looked for an easy way to cut the pattern so that the pieces would fit well and came up with the idea of breaking the pattern up into what are effectively a number of segmentation style cut areas. See the following diagram where each colour block represents one piece of wood - The blocks marked with an X indicate the sections of maple Once I'd opted for this route cutting the individual blocks was fairly simple, for example: Looking at the lower wing and the three banks of small feathers cut from one piece of wood, I started by accurately cutting the boundary between that piece of wood and the larger wing shoulder piece above it. I then cut the leftmost feather of the uppermost row and having cut this first feather I then cut the next one and then the next until the full row had been cut. I used the same method for the second row and then for the bottom row. Using this segmentation cutting technique any slight deviations from the pattern lines are easily accommodated and the only need for accurate cutting is for the pattern lines which mark the boundary between the different blocks of wood - or colours - as shown in the drawing One thing I have changed in my cutting style is that I now prefer to cut exactly on the centre of the pattern line and trust to my precision to get good fitting pieces. Before I tended to cut more to the waste side of the pattern line and then ended up having to rectify the cut shapes. Ok - that's all for tonight. Tomorrow I'll post a photo of the cut pattern and in the meantime I'll be mulling over how i'm going to tackle the shaping of this project. __________________ Jim in Mexico “Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.” -Albert Einstein Last edited by jim_mex; 10-26-2009 at 05:42 AM.

10-26-2009, 05:39 AM	#9
jim_mex 'Senior' member - no way! Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Pachuca, Mexico Posts: 2,361	@perk - this is an original design by Sarah. Fom what i've seen of her work she is very talented and I hope she will be showing us more of her designs in the future @Jerry - I have to admit that when the pieces fell the first thing I thought about was Carter's jigsaws - LOL! I did at least have the good sense to number all the pieces on the backside as I cut them so apart from the lost pieces it wsn't a total disaster @Lewis - you could be right pal but i'm sticking at one for now! @saw dust, WD & Jackie- having cheerleaders like you guys sure does help! Thanks again __________________ Jim in Mexico “Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.” -Albert Einstein

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10-26-2009, 12:46 AM	#1
jim_mex 'Senior' member - no way! Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Pachuca, Mexico Posts: 2,361	Sarah's magpie - Finished! + WIP photos A while back, one of our newcomers to the board, Sarah Evans - the dragon lady from Wales- asked my opinion on a beautiful design she had produced of a pair of magpie's in flight which she wanted to offer as a possible future intarsia challenge. I was a bit flattered to be asked and at first glance I thought it was much too complicated a piece for newbies and recent newcomers to intarsia including myself and suggested she contacted Bruce for his opinion. Since then I've had a rethink and decided instead of offering challenges to others it was time for me to raise the pole and give myself a new challenge. No way was I prepared to tackle the full design but I fancied having a go at producing one of the magpies. I have to admit I was attracted to the design because the magpie is one of my favourite European birds - attractive, scandalous, audaciously cheeky and attracted to bright shiny objects - come to think of it, much like Norma my wife! With Sarah's permission I redrew the pattern of one of the birds as a vector drawing and this weekend I started to cut the pieces. 89 in total (correction now 94, but who's counting!) which I reckon is about 75 more than on any other project I've tackled to date! I decided to post this as a work in progress mainly to give me an incentive to finish it rather than lose face so at the moment I'm taking a bit of a risk and living dangerously as I'm not sure how this is going to turn out I'm going to use two woods, hard maple for the white parts and mahogany which I will ebonize to a blue black colour. I would have preferred to have used a hardwood like American red oak or a similar but unfortunately couldn't source anything locally to suit. I'm looking forward, somewhat masochistically, to shaping this piece which I think is really going to test how far I can push the box. So folks, wish me luck and stay tuned for a success or a disaster and to give a helping hand if and when I scream! Oh - and why aren't I showing anything at the moment - well my first disaster struck late afternoon whilst I was assembling 3/4's of the cut pieces on a board to check the fit. Our frenchie ran into the shop and as I turned around to boot him out my workcoat caught on the edge of the assembly board tipping all the pieces onto the floor! Why this never happens on a clean floor only the workshop spirits know but after almost 2 hours sifting through sawdust, and general shop rubble I'm still three pieces missing and not in the frame of mind to finish the cutting tonight! Hopefully tomorrow I'll have something to show. Meanwhile here's Sarah's original design. I'm having a go at the the lower of the two birds - and if i do manage to pull this off I fancy completing the full design Assuming this works out ok I'll look at the possibility of offering this has a challenge, probably after Christmas when folks generally have a little more time on their hands Update at 9 Nov 2009 Here we are, a final photo and a flashshow showing different views of the shaping. I didn't quite have the right natural light for this main shot but I kinda like my Maggie caught by the late afternoon Mexican winter sun. For newcomers to this thread please read on to see my work in progress details Click here to see the Flash slideshow of the finished views __________________ Jim in Mexico “Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.” -Albert Einstein Last edited by jim_mex; 11-09-2009 at 11:10 PM.

10-26-2009, 02:53 AM	#2
saw dust Senior Member Join Date: May 2009 Location: Michigan Posts: 1,275	Jim I am sure you will do a great job. Every piece of work of yours I have seen has been great. Also look forward to your helpful notes and ideas frome your work. Like you say after Christmas I hope to be able to get back to intarsias. (still have to do my toucan!!) saw dust

10-26-2009, 04:21 AM	#6
ubgoofy2003 Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Arizona Posts: 761	Jim, that is a beautiful pattern that Sarah did. Did she create it herself, or get it from a picture. I have to comend you on your endeaver. That's going to take you some time to complete. I started an Intarsia some time ago & still need to finish it. Maybe you can inspire me to do that. Good Luck & hope you can complete it without further problems. Perk

10-26-2009, 04:31 AM	#7
jlyn069 Jackie Join Date: May 2009 Location: Michigan Posts: 263	Sarah, Your pattern is terrific. That would be quite a challenge but fun at the same time. Jim, Sorry all your pieces hit the floor. You know what they say about wearing loose fitting clothes while working with power tools!!! LOL... Now you know another reason not to wear them... THis is a great project and I am looking forward to your WIP pictures. You can do it and I bet it will look great. Jackie