I think this was in sand stone or something for a few million years.. but lucky me!

   Wow just preserving it and getting it all together so I could get some color back 

on it as it might have been all those years ago was a big deal. Then trying to keep

the paint from getting where it was not supposed to be was a bigger deal. Something

around 60 bones to this critter? Bones?

  I'm still working on the stone I will be mounting it on is very hard granite or something

but I will try to make it look like sand stone maple in its ruff state.

 

More if I ever get it all together?

Amazing, Jesse. That must've take a lot of paint time, not to mention time on the scroll saw. BTW, what size blade did you use on that hunk of maple? It looks like you've done some forming of the slab. Are you going to reinsert your butterfly"?

Edited May 1, 20233 yr by Gene Howe

Gene I started out with a #5 flying dutchman blade then after I cut out a few individual pieces I switched over to a #3 Olson metal cutting blade for smaller lines.

  To make to gaps less noticeable taper each side of the wood down and it will help make the gap disappear.

The painting time, I use the coke cans and only a drop or two for each color and use 5 or 6 real small brushes . This way I don't have to go to the sink and clean the brushes very often to I save a lot of time... Probably between one half to an hour to do it all.

That is incredible!

Gene my band saw will take 10" tall wood when I'm resawing. I start with the maple board 1 1/16 to 1 1/8" thick and resaw about 3/8" off the top of the board and discard that much and always use the bottom part.  This lets what I will carve stick out that much to start with...This part will still be the same as the parts I scroll saw out.. So for the pieces to fit back in to the holes they came out of I always throw away the top of any resawing I do.. so this way the same up and down of the wood still matches where it was originally.

  If you don't already know not every one can set their band saw where it can resaw that much height for ten or more inches of sawing with out screwing up some wood. And some saws can't even do that much..

 I just now went out and measured the board I resawed and one end I started sawing was .020 wider than the end I started sawing first.. 

 For what I and doing this amount of difference won't ever show. This 1/4" collet chuck angle grinder did all the carving outside the butterfly. Its 14.95 right now at Harbor Freight and the bit that's in it did the work which is about 10 bucks or more that the grinder cost...

 I bought both of the smallest angle die grinders they had about 15 years ago  and still in great shape.  The butterfly I used the dremel and a 1 x 42" belt, disk grinder. The angle shape is much easier to control that the straight models.

  I also mark all the back sides of the wood I will be carving on or else some will get carved on the bottom first before I realize the difference of up and down or right and wrong.

 Both the humming bird and the butterfly came from Pinterest and had to be resized to suit meself!

   Anything questions on anything else? 

Got a couple air grinders but, they only take those Itty bitty carving/engraving bits and operate at 10 psi. I think eventually I'm gonna have to visit HF for that angle grinder.

My bandsaw is set up with the Carter guides to resaw and I can reliably get 1/8 slices using a fence. No drift.

Edited May 1, 20233 yr by Gene Howe

Gene I start with 1" thick wood. saw out the pattern as one piece. Lay out the pattern and you have a piece of wood with a hole in the middle. Take this holy wood to the band saw and resaw about 1/3 off the top. You put the pattern back in the hole and you have your carving sticking out the top. This makes it looks like you have already done some carving? Then with the pattern still on use the scroll saw and cut it up in small pieces you will carve. I leave the pattern on for a guide where I need to grind.

  It will take some slow and careful sawing to be able to push the wood out of the middle so make sure the blade is always straight up and down as you saw...

 Looks good Jess, I like the way you carved out the background.