# Help needed to make pattern for Intarsia



## Allison (Dec 31, 2007)

This is a metal bicycle that is 23 X 18 inches. As you can see in the pics below it actually comes apart in this one place. I want to make it out of wood. As can be seen I have outlined it and I have been stuck ever since. No matter how I try to fill it in so I can make it into a pattern I just cant. I have actually tried laying these pieces on my printer. I have placed tracing paper over it and tried to trace. I have used the long edge of crayons trying to get at least some MORE detail so I may be able to fill it in. But I can not even draw a stick man right, so I really need all the help I can get.
My question here is What am I not thinking of? There has got to be someway I can turn this into a flat paper pattern. Does anyone have any ideas for me. I know nothing about google sketch-up so that's out. Matter of fact just about any way of doing it with a computer is out. It kinda just needs to be done some other way. I have even been thinking if there is a product like paint that I could put on it and then lay tracing paper over that, lifting off the pattern and then cleaning the bicycle.
Any help would be so appreciated. I have been wracking my brain (I know, I know, I do not have a whole lot of one LOL!!!) for the last 4 days trying to figure out something. I just know in my heart there is something easy out there that I am just not thinking of!
Again any help, thoughts, ideas would be so appreciated. I think this bicycle would look awesome out of wood!
Thanks and PEACE!!!

Oh gosh, I almost forgot, I want to make it Intarsia project, not a scroll project


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## TopamaxSurvivor (May 2, 2008)

If I undersatand your problem correctly, laying it on a copy machince should get you a detailed picture. I have done this in the past with various objects. All the area not covered by the reflective cover come out black; so, laying a white paper over your objects should help with the quality a little. You may have to do this several times to get the entire pattern depending on the size of the original. Once you have the parts, you can adjust the size with a copy machine too. Hope this helps. good luck )


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## TopamaxSurvivor (May 2, 2008)

Hi Again Allison, I just happened to think about smoking the origianl piece. Use a candle to put soot all over the piece being careful not to burn it of course. After you get a good coat of soot on it, lay a paper on it to pickup the pattern being careful not to smear things around. That should do it if you can smoke it without damaging the original. I have used inletting black to find the high spots inletting stocks, but I think it would probably be too hard to clean off. You could maybe make some with charcoal?? Good Luck :=)) PS, put something down to catch the wax from the candle,, they burn fast when held sideways to smoke an item.


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## robbi (Jul 28, 2007)

Hey Allison,
I'm not sure exactly what detail you are looking for-I know nothing about intarsia but if you are trying for the detail on the faces and clothes and all that, how about chaulk? It's kind of the same idea as crayons but sometimes it works better. There's my 2 cents….I'm sure you will think of something, you do beautiful work!


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## GFYS (Nov 23, 2008)

One could possibly import the photo into a cad program and trace it to a certain scale and print it with a grid. Do you want it 23×18?


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## Allison (Dec 31, 2007)

Yes I would like it the dimensions it is!


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## scmichael (Feb 6, 2009)

Hi Allison. I do a lot of design work w/Photoshop. I'll gladly copy the pic and see if I can print it out simply as a B&W line art picture. If I can do this, the pattern is pretty much done…......then it's up to you to choose the wood types. All you would have to do is use the original picture as a guide to bring the 3-d look into the final project. I'll keep you posted.


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## interpim (Dec 6, 2008)

You ever consider free handing using the grid method?

Take a photo of your original, second from bottom should work… draw a evenly spaced grid in it.
Draw another grid on your paper, you can increase the size on your paper. And start drawing each square individually. Once your done with all the squares, you will have a fairly accurate rendition.

Or, you could go to blockposters and make a large scale one after you get it digitally changed to black and white.


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## Harv (Feb 9, 2009)

Hi Allison

I can appreciate the problem you are having. My problem is that I can not draw a straight line with a ruler! My only suggestion is that if you can not figure out something yourself, you can have one of the fine Intarsia artists that are online draw it out for you. Im afraid I am doomed to create pieces from other artists. You do great work and Im sure you will come up with something you are happy with.
Harv


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## Radish (Apr 11, 2007)

I saved you an 18x24 pdf document that you can print out at FedEx Office (formerly Kinko's) on the architectural plotter, or they can scale the document to what ever standard paper size you are looking for. 
Sorry, Ally, you'll still have to draw in the individual pieces-but it's a start.


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## TopamaxSurvivor (May 2, 2008)

Hmm! That is interesting. How hard was it to get from the photo to pdf?


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## GFYS (Nov 23, 2008)

heh, you have more help than you need.


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## Radish (Apr 11, 2007)

Photoshop:
Image>Adjust> Levels
Image>Adjust> Brightness Contrast
(knocks out the background)
Filter>Stylize>Find Edges
Image>Adjust> Levels
Image>Adjust> Brightness Contrast
Image>Mode>Bitmap>50% Threshold.

Illustrator:
File>Place object>Save Photoshop file as object
Object>Live Trace>Tracing Options>Black and White> Levels 157>Ignore white
File>Document settings>18×24 Landscape
Constrained Enlargement (Drag from corner with Shift Alt keys down.)
File>Save As: PDF

Voilá!


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## Allison (Dec 31, 2007)

Wow Thank you!!!!!


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## TopamaxSurvivor (May 2, 2008)

Thanks for the reply Doug. Sounds easy enough in Photoshop :=))

Allison, just being curious, may I ask what this outline drawing gives you that yours didn't have other than the hat, arms and jaw lines?


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## Radish (Apr 11, 2007)

I choked the black back some more so it would be easier to pencil in individual pieces of wood. A full scale pdf is here.

At one point in this, TopamaxSurvivor, I thought the same thing. She already has a fine line contour of the outside shape. I've never done intarsia, but at minimum with the pdf you can print as many first generation, full scale digital prints as you want. With a little effort you could print in tiles at scale to have something to paste to the wood you'll cut out. Or you could print a full scale print, pen in details and make copies (or a scan) of that.
With enough fiddling around you wouldn't be cutting wood 'til next November :^}
Anyway, I had fun on the a snowy indoors day even if it was a boondoggle.


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## Grumpy (Nov 9, 2007)

Douglas, you are a hero.


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## chriswright (Nov 13, 2008)

I don't know anything about how this type of work is done, but can you not just work off the original? Have it sitting next to you and just copy where the carvings need to go? And if you can't then I'd just take lots and lots of photos from every angle you can think of and have those on file with lots of notes and measurements. I think that's how I'd do something like this, but then like I said, I don't know much about how this type of artwork goes together. Good luck and I hope this helps.

Chris


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## Kindlingmaker (Sep 29, 2008)

...then there is the old way of talking a slide film picture of it and attaching a large piece of paper to a wall then using a projector to trace it.


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## Kindlingmaker (Sep 29, 2008)

...OH! using new newspaper set the items on it in the sun for a few hours and the newspaper turns yellow and that which is covered by your item remains white.


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## MsDebbieP (Jan 4, 2007)

great "how to"


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## davidc (May 5, 2009)

You have yourself a pretty elaborate project. If I would be tackling it, I would start out by taking a one level or just a front view of it. Then I would open it up in photoshop program on the computer. In the process of taking the picture it is important that you have good lighting, so every detail shows up. Now that you have the picture in front of you, open up a new layer, (I would call this layer new pattern) Then with the poly laso tool start copying the lines to make a selection. You have to hook up the selection so that it will come together as a blinking object. you then do a Stroke (under the edit section). next step is to Deselect what you have stroked an use the erasor tool to erase the unwanted lines. You will have to repeat this process over and over until you have it all copied. Because you opened the picture and made the new layer you will always have a tracing top work with. Of course there are other ways to do it but like I say I would do it this way. Dave


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## Byron (Nov 19, 2011)

For the future you could shine a light onto it and trace its shadow, but photoshop is probably the best bet, or post it on here and hope someone awesome can do it for you!


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## davidc (May 5, 2009)

Allison, I guess I have to go along with Doug Borden on using Kinko's (or whatever it's called now) to blow up the picture you took of it to get the right size. You now have a copy that's perfect in all detail. If you have difficulty with photoshop you might try this.


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