My Journey As A Scroll Saw Pattern Designer #654: Two New Projects!

Well, I finally feel like I actually accomplished something! While part of me knows that I work just about every day, sometimes I feel that unless I see something tangible at the end of the day, I didn’t get anything done.

It seems like forever since I was able to present a new project, and even though I know it hasn’t been that long, with all the other things that have been going on lately, I feel like I have been slagging lately.

Yesterday was a good day. Finally, a day of implementation of my ideas had arrived and I was able to spend a couple of hours doing one of the things that is the top of my list of things to do – scroll saw!

When I am absent from the saw for long periods of time while I am designing and doing other aspects of the job, I often forget just how much I love it and how enjoyable it is. To me it is one of the most relaxing aspects of woodworking and I love seeing the designs that I have in my head come to life when implemented onto a beautiful piece of wood. It is so cool!

I finished drawing my new project for the magazine, and got the cutting done on it. It is a bit of a spin on the candle tray (same idea) but has a different application and can also be quite useful and a fun project to boot.

Several months ago (maybe even almost a year!) my friend Leldon sent me a couple of awesome glass cheese domes. He had seen them around his area and thought that they would be something that I could use for one of my projects. He was right, and I immediately got this idea to make a cool looking cheese tray, using the same method that I use for making my candle trays (bevel cutting.)

In thinking about it though, we all know that lots of wood (especially scrolled wood) isn’t really water-friendly. While we do use it for cutting boards and such, something that is scrolled would be far more delicate and not quite receptive to much washing. So I had the thought of using a Corian insert so that it would keep things cleaner.

Anyway – here is what I came up with. A mouse and cheese themed cheese tray:

The little mice are scrolled in the border:

And I cut a 1/4” Corian insert, to keep things cleaner:

And it all fits under the 6” glass dome:

I think it came out really cool! I used a piece of curly maple that I had here and even though it isn’t oiled or finished yet, it looks really nice so far.

I must say, I LOVED cutting the Corian on the scroll saw. Since it was such a hard material, I thought it would pose a problem. I used my usual blue painters’ tape, and then applied the pattern. The blade that I used was the Olsen Mach blade in size 3 reverse and I slowed my saw down just a bit to about 75 percent. It cut absolutely beautifully! There was no melting back like I heard of and the piece was wonderfully stable and strong. Even cutting the circle, which can be a bit of a challenge, worked out perfectly. I was very pleased.

I have looked here in Nova Scotia in our area and I am having trouble finding the Corian pieces. While I can buy chunks of it, it is very expensive and hard to come by. I would love to find some more of this cool material, as I can think of all kinds of applications for using it in scroll sawing. So many people talk of finding ‘drop offs’ and I am going to be scouting this summer when we go on our trips and try to get my hands on some more. It is really cool stuff.

And that’s not all folks . . .

I also cut another candle tray out, too. Several months ago I did a request for Jerrell (who is here on Lumberjocks) and I never finished making the piece into a pattern. With summer coming, I think that the sea shell theme is perfect for a summer camp or a beach house and I thought it was high time for me to get cutting and get it finished. I won’t show the whole thing today, but I will give you a small sample:

I feel that this design is one example of how pretty doing a simple project can be. This was really quick to cut and I also love how cool the shells look here.

Both projects need to be oiled today, and I am debating on whether or not to stain the shells (I am leaning toward doing so using some soft, pastel colors to accent them). The seashell candle tray is made from beautiful ash and I think will look great with a splash of color added to it.

I will be doing the finishing touches on both these projects today, as well as taking the presentation photography (these are just snapshots to show you this morning). All the while, my little Canon printer is still humming away. I am down to printing the last 10 of the 300 patterns as I write this, and I can’t say enough good about this printer. In the past four days, it has flawlessly printed over 5000 (yes – 5000!) sheets of color paper. It has not skipped or jammed even once, and has certainly been worth the $50 I got it for. I am very thrilled (and relieved!) that it has performed so well under this kind of use.

So all in all another busy day. It was cold again yesterday and snowed most of the morning, but it didn’t stick at all. We took a nice long walk in the woods behind us, where we haven’t been since last fall and it was a nice and refreshing break and a chance to enjoy the beautiful peacefulness and take a little time away. The sun is just coming up now as I write, and it looks like it is going to be another nice day. I can’t wait to get started.

Have a great day, too!

-- Contributing Editor, Creative Woodworks and Crafts, Sheila Landry Designs http://www.sheilalandrydesigns.com "Knowledge is Power"