My Journey As A Scroll Saw Pattern Designer #810: Planning Ahead Pays Off

What a day yesterday turned out to be! I must have made the coffee just right (or maybe it was the pecan bars that I made the night before and had for breakfast!) because I feel like I really accomplished a lot.

After a morning trip to the dentist (which I don’t like at all, but came out ‘unscathed’) and a stop at the gym, I had to stop at the store to pick up some things for my new projects. By the time I got home, it was almost noon and I thought that the day was going to be a wash. I still had some final tweaking on the drawings for the new projects and I got busy with that.

I then was able to head for the scroll saw.

It turns out that I am working on three versions of my projects right now, and that I will have three separate patterns from them. I kind of got things organized in my head as to what I am going to do though so other than thinking of clever names to differentiate them from each other, I am pretty much home free.

I got all three projects cut yesterday (YAY!) but it wasn’t without making a boo boo (no pun intended!) On my first piece, I had some of the lines for the fancy scrolled lettering too close and the cutting didn’t hold up. Of course, I was already through cutting it before I saw it wasn’t going to work.

So it was back to the drawing board (literally) to move some lines around and make it workable. Once again, that is why I like to cut my own designs out. I often get generous offers from people willing to test cut for me, but I much prefer to do them myself, as I can correct things right as I go along.

So it was “Take 2” and on the second attempt, things came out quite nice. I have a picture of the first project here for you right now:

The pieces are made of a wonderful curly maple that I had and are about 6” tall. I already oiled these pieces and it really brought out the ripples in the wood grain. I love it because it looks like the ghosts are ripply and go perfectly with the design. I think they look pretty cool!

But they aren’t finished yet. There is another little ‘surprise that I am going to add on today that will make them look even nicer. You will just have to wait until tomorrow to see what that is going to be!

All the while I was cutting, Keith was sanding the over 500 ten in square pieces of plywood we were preparing for our next order. He had picked up the wood the previous day and we wanted to have it ready when the next order came in. We both finished just before dinner and cleaned up the place nicely.

Just after we were finished, as I was oiling the pieces shown here, I received an email order for two hundred more kits. There are a hundred of each the Christmas stockings and presents that I showed the other day. That makes us happy because it means they are selling well (AND we are prepared!)

I spent the evening printing out the patterns for the cutting, as well as beginning to print the patterns for the kits. Keith got the wood pieces necessary for this order glued for stack cutting so we are ready to go today. We are both going to spend much of the day cutting, and I am going to try to progress with my own designs when we are finished with that, in the evening.

These are exciting times for us. It is funny, but I don’t feel overwhelmed in the least. The moral of the story here is that by thinking ahead and preparing for things, we are both ready to get this work done quickly and not be knocked off of our feet by it. Being organized helps us make the best use of our time and allows us to do more without being stressed about it. I can’t tell you how happy I am that we worked ahead.

I hope you all have a wonderful Friday!

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