Advanced Intarsia How-To

[workin for wood]

These are the finished photographs of what I believe the boy pixie should look like. the angle shot helps alot to show the elevations in the picture.

That's pretty much all there is to know...if you have any questions, feel free to let me know.

[workin for wood]

Feels like I'm never going to get this project done. My work is short handed and I've been working 60 hrs a week. I want it to be done so I can give it to my wife for christmas, but dont see it happening. I am finally at the half way point though. 300 down, 300 to go. It's not the biggest or the most pieces I ever did, but it seems to be topping the scales for difficulty level. I think the worst part is the grapes. I have four grape clusters averaging 50 grapes each and silly me has to make them out of purpleheart. Seems like I need a new blade every 5 grapes. One cluster down, three to go...

[Rolf]

I believe iv'e said it before but your work is awesome.
I really appreciate the pictures that you are posting.

[workin for wood]

No problem Rolf. A picture does say a thousand words. Don't want to let it go to my head, but that picture is definitely heading to the awesome category. I'm inspired by pictures to. There was an issue of Wood magazine a few years ago with a clock contest. Someone made an intarsia clock..it was a regular old style bell on top clock but it had water under it with the clock reflecting back from the water in reverse. That was the most inspiring intarsia I ever saw. He didn't win..a huge spider clock won, and the spider was pretty cool, but the intarsia clock was much more awe inspiring. Whoever that was is better than me, but it is my goal to one day be as good as that.

[bearfretworks]

Originally Posted by workin for wood

Don't want to let it go to my head, but that picture is definitely heading to the awesome category. I'm inspired by pictures to. ...... Whoever that was is better than me, but it is my goal to one day be as good as that.

Another thanks for posting pics of your progress/process.

And with an attitude like you have, you WILL "be as good as that" soon, if not already!

Great stuff!

[PuzzledMoose]

That is an incredible looking piece of work, Jeff. I can't wait to see it all done.

Thanks for taking the time to post all of that. It made fascinating reading.

Ian

[workin for wood]

Things always pick up speed when a project is getting closer to completion...it's like I'm anxious to see the end result. Had two days off, spent 30 hours finishing the grape leaves and inserting them into the mirror.

I began final assembly by expanding my scroll saw table with a sheet of plywood, some scraps of lumber and a few clamps, to give the 32 inch frame support during cutting.

The finished picture is positioned on the frame, then clamped into place and traced out. Then the frame is cut, and that's a monster challenge. Took me 4 hours to cut it. I began with the blade in normal position (yea, my number 9's), and made any cuts I could. Then I had to turn the blade around to the back side. I tried standing in every consevable position, but nothing works good...you just cut really slow and careful, while hunched over and bearing the pain that begins to attack your back. There were a few spots that were impossible to cut do to the throat of the saw, so I found one of my uncontrollable little spiral blades to do those, then cleaned up the mess with my 1/4 inch spindle sander. I broke the spiral blade..my body leaning over the table, the arm jumped up and busted me in the forehead..only a tiny bit of blood though.

I cleaned up the cuts as best I could with the spindle sander and de-burred the cuts with some fine sand paper. I inserted the mirror into the frame and placed wax paper over the mirror...then glued in the picture to the frame. The mirror will be removed, the picture will be finished, and then it will all be sillyconed to the mirror and hung on the wall. Definitely looking like a worthy competition picture.

[workin for wood]

Finally finished.

The assembly was much more difficult than antisipated. It took an entire day to mount and then clean the mirror. I never want to do that again, and don't recommend it to anyone else.
This is also the most difficult picture to photograph. With lights on, there's too much glare, with lights off you have to use flash which bounces back at you. I opted with the flash photography, which looks cool...almost makes the pixies look like angels with halo's...but it really doesn't look this way in the real world. anyhow...here it is.

[workin for wood]

perhaps this photo has better light and clarity

[lucky788scroller]

It looks terriffic! And I know all to well about photoing something displayed with mirrors (and Bob D does as well ), but mirrors do add some totally unique looks to things. Is your mirror mounted so it can be removed for cleaning? dale