A friend of mine at work asked me to design something for his up coming marriage and this is the result. I took a pattern for the Holiday edition of Scroll Saw Woodworking and Crafts and
enlarged it so I could fit the names and wedding date on it and cut it from a 3/8 thick piece of
oak . The finished project measures about 11 inches across and about 10 inches high at the peak of the arcs. I dipped it in Watco Danish Oil and then put two coats of Watco spray lacquer on it to seal it. I'm confident he's going to like it and I'm sure I'll get orders for more. Where to find the wood is another matter. I got this one at Johnson's Workbench in Charlotte (pronounced shar LOTT for you non Michigan folks) which is about 100 miles from here. Needless to say at $3.20 a gallon for gas I don't go running down there very often.
Enlarging the pattern and cutting our the heart was pretty easy. Designing and cutting the names and dates was another matter. I use Inkscape to design word art. It is a vector drawing program and I am learning to use it for more and more things. I have cut many free standing words, names and sayings where the letters sit on a base. Cutting letters INTO a piece of wood
is quite a different matter. When you do this you quickly realize that anything with a closed loop (e,o,p,d ect) requires another design technique called bridges to keep the center of the letter from falling out . There is a way to do this in Inkscape and there are some excellent tutorials on line to help you out. Unfortunately I am a slow learner and after watching the video about 25 times I finally got the hang of it and now it is quite fun.
Well that is the story of the Andrew & Andrea plaque (can you spot the letters I had to modify?)
Got a very busy week and, unfortunately, none of it involves scroll sawing so it will probably be another week between posts. Check back in from time to time and be sure to add comments if you have any. I love to read them.
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