I found this picture and it immediately spoke to me saying it wanted me to try and bring it to life to sit on a mantle in my house. Okay, I got a few days to kill so why not....so ole Rapid Resizer clicked on and gave me a helping hand...… then said you got to do the rest.  

That's going to be amazing. 

I’m betting on another museum quality piece.

Hey guys don't get carried away with the praises before I even get the picture taped together. 

  
The more I look at this thing I see danger around every curve.. And its full of curves. I'm watching the hockey game and giving this wood project my good eye. Maybe I ought to drop back to working on my cat house...Those cats can't tell if I'm doing a good job or not.

Patch, from the work that you have posted, I have no doubts that it will be perfect.  Can hardly wait to see your progress.  

You've been in the groove lately Jess, no doubt but that this will be a winner when done

Monday morning. This so far is not so bad but I'm just starting.. Right now after playing with the flower up top I am now lowering some of the wood with a grinder before I start carving with the pieces to the right of the flower. Maybe you can see some of the wood is missing using the larger grinder. The entire dial area will get lowered at least a half inch before I carve anything in the middle area. This will make the carved areas stand out more...I think this was a Russian barometer thingy. So far just one bit has been used.

Wow!  

Great start Jess.

I sure wish I could convince someone this ain't near as hard as brain surgery and probably the tools are somewhat cheaper for wood so you all needs to watch real close so you will decide you could do this also....

  Got back from the doctor about 2 so only got less than 2 hours on this since the last picture..

 

The good part is if after I do a section and study it a while and don't like it I can go deeper in to the wood and change that area before I get finished. Still using the same bit I started with...

13 hours ago, Smallpatch said:

I sure wish I could convince someone this ain't near as hard as brain surgery and probably the tools are somewhat cheaper for wood so you all needs to watch real close so you will decide you could do this also....

No doubt about that Jess.  What is the learning curve on this?  How do your earliest pieces compare to the masterpieces you turn out now?

The difference I can see is I grind more off. I get more dramatic going from high to low more wildly. I don't know if this sound right but this picture I'm using I doubled the size twice before I got it big enough to suit me...so in reality I should be cutting things down equally??

  I can use this End of the Trial  to show you... I always use a backer board and it goes out to include what I turn into a frame. Them once the outside is cut away from the rest of the wood I remove the backer board and start cutting out the pieces to be shaped and carved.....the indian an horse are still one piece of wood.. I first started sawing up every thing else into pieces that would have different heights in the finished picture...This lets me take everything but the horse and indian over to the bandsaw and only saw off the top of the pieces that will be shortened....The bottom sides all mate up with each other so always saw off the top no matter how much you take off, the bottoms will always mate up..Another good reason to color all the back side black or something different so that side always goes against the fence when sawing. I

  can see I have already cut off his mane above his head. Easier to work the small amount but first I will either use the 1 x 42" belt sander or the disk sander to shape it and I noticed his mane over his neck has the pattern  for I have already started shaping this part. ...His two back legs I will separate from the tail down for it will be easier to shape each leg. Usually where two pieces are glued back together each side is curved down deep enough where a person can't see where they join.

  I also use the oscillating drum sander for the general shapes before going to the Dremel for fine tuning.

  The only thing I can see that I don't like carving my way is the finished picture gets warped in by using too much glue. I find that flooding the backer board with glue and only finger pressing the pieces back on the glue draws things into a  curved shape...

 

The backer board is only 1/8" thick on this lion. But I just now took the End of The Trail down and looked and it didn't warp out of shape so bad?? First picture was Ash and now I am using thick Maple with 1/4" backer board, BB??

 

After you do one you will look at it and see things that could have made it better. The two merry go round horses is about the last thing I did and it shows big time over the first thing I did....so no you probably won't be satisfied with the first or the last thing you build but I bet it will make you want to make something else just to see if you can get better.....

 

 

I know I was proud of the way this Indian and horse came out but this picture shows I could have shaped the horses head better than leaving it more or less how the saw left it looking.

  I now find myself going over book after book checking out how flowers are shaped.

And tree leaves….

Looks good from what I see, excellent work!

 

How did the cat house turn out?

 

I got the cat house carpeted walls floor and ceiling and flashing on the roof.  A layer of insulation between 2 3/4" plywood boards in the floor.. Not a clue as if they will actually use it when it gets cold. There is a freeze warning for tonight, 28 so I will check on them later..

  I got to work on my new project some today after I removed the plugs on the lake pump and ran air through the lines for a while to push the water in the low areas of the pvc going to the dock where the pump sets.. This is what I got done today.  I cut the middle down for the face yesterday and still need to notch out a little for the dial to fit down in the groove. Getting harder to run the scroll saw for my eye sight is going fast

1 hour ago, Smallpatch said:

Not a clue as if they will actually use it when it gets cold.

Mine have been in and out of the partially constructed ones for several days.  End of the week may be done... 

Thanks for sharing all that info up above Jess.  Maybe one day... when I get my other thousand projects done!

Edited October 31, 20196 yr by Cal

I printed out the enlarged picture Saturday. Sunday I cut the outside out....Monday I cut out the inside pieces and since then I been having fun with the grinders...

  So far it has turned out better than I expected.. I raised three of the flowers three different heights and lowered the middle where the dial fits. Now it gets serious. But the clock face I ordered has been put on back order and they have no idea when if ever I will get it. So, maybe the wood dial I made I might use but that means the hands will be out in the open and if there are any little kiddies roaming the house that is the first thing they want to reach and get since the second hand is going round and around and it just looks to good to not touch...I have a few clocks with exposed hands here in the house but no little kids can reach them for they are on the wall... I have a glass bezel to enclose the dial and hands but this wood dial might be too thick but that is down the line so I have more time to think it over.. Only one goof up for I cut out part of the vine over in the left side but epoxy reattached the pieces and in a few minutes I re cut where I was supposed to cut the first time so no big deal...I have lots of those kind of reminders hanging on the wall already...… and that don't help.

 

The Master at work, love this!!!!!

A bit more work accomplished. This

 

Or this.

 That is a CD disk behind the numbers. Or this

 

I like the first one with Roman Numerals.  CD disk was a cool look as well.  All are great just my personal preference..