One month later...

[JanetsBears]

...I'm still having far more fun than I ever imagined I would, and I've come to the conclusion that I really need to get on with organising my retirement to allow more time with my new hobby.

I had intended spending the evenings last week making something for my wife for Valentine's day, but sadly, a period of illness put an end to that plan, preventing any use of the scroll saw for 5 days. So, with Valentine's day fast approaching and still nothing made, I revised my plans on Sunday and made her something simple from a bit of 4mm plywood:

I masked half of the plywood and stuck my pattern to it, cut out the detail on the scroll saw then ran around the outer heart shape with a craft knife before peeling all the masking tape off the surface of the heart. I then applied a bit of stain to tone it down a bit and added blobs of paint to the other half of the plywood corresponding to the locations that had been cut out, before gluing the 2 bits of plywood together and leaving overnight. Monday evening, I used the remains of the pattern still stuck 'outside' the heart as a guide to cut out the full heart shape, then gave the whole lot a quick spray with a clear lacquer. Job done.

Didn't have time to do it properly but my wife seems pleased with the result and that's what matters

Chris

 

[Claymore]

........

 

[Buffalo Chas]

Very nice indeed Chris. Well done. Really like the font you used for the lettering.

Charley

 

[linkshouse]

Very nice cutting there Chris.

I always think that lettering is more challenging than anything else as people immediately spot mistakes.

With general shapes and outlines other people don't know what the original shape was meant to be so the occasional minor drift goes unnoticed but we all know what text is meant to look like so errors are more easily spotted.

I like the use of colour too all in all a lovely piece and I can imagine you wife was chuffed to bits.

Keep up the good work.

Phill

 

[JanetsBears]

Thanks all for the comments and encouragement, it's all appreciated.

I must admit that there is an element of 'keeping the wife happy' with all this, so I can continue scrolling inside the house where it's nice and warm. My other woodworking activities tend to be a bit restricted during the colder months, whereas with this hobby, I can spend just 10 minutes doing something if I want. I've even cut things out while waiting for my dinner to cook, starting and stopping work on something is no effort at all, whereas making the trip outside involves turning the alarm off on my workshop and back door, putting on shoes and warm clothing, venturing outside in the cold and rain, etc.. Far too much like hard work to me!

I do find the cutting of wordart type stuff to be very relaxing and it seems like very good practice for somebody like me who's new to all this. I did initially think I'd just do a couple of words but my wife's list of requirements seems to be getting much longer, and now my step-daughter has joined in with her own requests. This does all mean that my skills with Inkscape are improving all the time so knocking up the next wordart pattern takes only a few minutes from scratch. I think the hardest part of this process was finding suitable fonts, but once you've got a few that work, things get a lot easier. The one I used for this project is Birds of Paradise which is freely downloadable.

Chris

 

[AES]

I think it looks great Chris. I've also found (to my great annoyance) that getting accurate lettering is a real challenge, even more so if the word has adjacent double letters, the slightest irregularities show up like a bull dog's b------s!

Well done (and I hope your "cunning ploy" works).

AES

 

[donwatson]

Well cut lettering there Chris. A good job all round I think.