my horse head..

[Trout]

I pretty much have the head cut and some what fitted so now I'm trying to get a game plan for the shaping..
talk about making some saw dust..

where to begin?


Trout

[CanadianScroller]

I looked on the Google earth map and saw a could of dust floating over Hayward. I figured it was you.

Great job Trout! Someday I am going to try that intarsia stuff. I hope I am half as good as you are!

[Marcel in Longueuil]

Looking good Trout!

Seems you're on your way to another winner.

Regards,
Marcel

[Trout]

I think....

it's time to get a book on Intarsia....



I need to learn how to do it the right way other than "Trout style" being that I haven't done anything to regreat....YET!

Trout

[Trout]

Help.....

any idea's on how I should shape the horses mane....





HELP!!
Trout

[lucky788scroller]

wavy, and tapered towards the end that flies free
and rounded all the way to the back on the ones that are outer edges. Lookin good so far! Dale

[workin for wood]

I agree with dale on the mane. Do you have a stationary belt sander? I do most of my shaping on a 6 x 48 ...it's about 1 hp. Mine is a cheap grizzly that I bought at a garage sale, and I don't really like the quality of grizzly tools, but when it comes to a belt sander it doesn't have to be great, as long as it tracks proper and has enough power to not bog down. 120-150 grit is all you need for belts.
begin your shaping with the highest piece first. In this case, the cheek is the highest point. The bottom of the cheek will be drastically lower than the rest, because that is where the neck will be. draw a line on the edge of the cheek tapering it down towards the back of his body. Once you profile the bottom of his cheek, take the entire piece and rotate it at about a 45 angle all the way around. Imagine a penny...you spin it on edge...once the penny goes off it's outer edges, it begins to roll on it's innner edge at various angles untill finally stopping flat on the table. This is how you round the cheek...hope you can follow that. The nose is a simple taper from the cheek to the snout. place the shaped cheek into the puzzle. now using a pencil, you will scribe the lowest part of your roundover onto the ends of the nose. Now you have a refference point, and you will sand those to taper at the end of the nose. At the end of the nose round the pieces over large time. You also need to taper the nose in the direction of top and bottom too, but don't go deeper than the scribe where the cheek meets. When you have the nose done, insert the nostril and scribe it to match the nose. Grind the nostril to be about 1/8 inch higher than the surrounding parts, then round the edges over nice and big so that the round over reaches down to your scribe mark.
now do the exact same thing you did to the nostril to the eye. The black in the center and the white off his eyes must match completely...just like the flush fit in your own eyes. The center of the eye will be slightly higher..gives him a slight bulging eye effect. Finally, scribe the hair into the picture. Sand waves into it, making sure that the hair never goes lower than the height of the body pieces. The hair closest to the cheek should be the highest, and as the hair pieces go towards the edge of the picture, they should be the lowest.
After every piece is fit and shaped, bevel the edges, but only a small bevel. I use the belt sander for this to, a real quick 45 degree pass to break the edges. Do not break the edges on the eyeball though. Hand sand every piece, which also means making the small bevel rounder. The small rounded edges will give the picture more shadow and definition.
I hand sand with 150 grit, that's pretty much good enough. I do most of my hand sanding on top of the belt sander..with the sander turned off of course. The belt on the sander helps to hold the piece steady. Otherwise you can make a sanding board, with a piece of sandpaper glued on to it, then clamp that to your bench.
Each time you make a picture, you'll get into your own groove and style, then each picture will become better than the last. Patience and trial/error are the key. The end result of an intarsia should look like a relief carving, only better because of the different colors, grain directions and the definition of each piece.
Hope this helps.

[Trout]

I've got the sanders and the scribing down..
It's just tiring to get my wood to look somewhat like the picture that I have for a reference...the one dimensional picture doesn't help much and I've tried to find a finished piece someplace in the galleries with no luck...
as you can see the mane is raised with 3 different heights. I just can visualize the flow keeping with the 3 different levels...

time for work and to rethink what I'm doing....I'll be back tonight..
thanks guys for replying...

when in dout, time to go fishing!
Trout

[workin for wood]

check out the unicorn picture that I made in the gallery. The unicorn has a mane...only difference is the horn. maybe that will help you see how to make the hair look.

[Trout]

this is...

the piece I'm trying to duplicate....



mine isn't close to looking like that....

Trout

[PeteB]

I suggest looking at lots of pictures of horses, or looking at live ones if you can to get a feel for what's natural. Here's a very good photo resource:

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=horse

Looking very good so far. Your wood selections are superb.

Pete

[ChuckD]

Wonder Wheel

One thing Trout, on the mane they used their wonder Wheel. It is what makes it look so good. With a little practice you could maybe use a dermal tool to cut the grooves. Check my question to them about the wonder wheel. It is a nice tools to have if you are going to do animals. I recently did a 2 and half foot high bear and the whole body was done with the wonder wheels. Made the project from a "O hum" to a "wow, how did you do that." Problem is the picture didn't turn out but they are going to send me a picture when they get to it.
One more thing, that horse is the same one that them do the video "Contouring Intarsia with Judy Gale Roberts". I learned a lot from the video.

[minowevie]

Trout, that horse looks great. love the demention. Ok now lead him over hear. and put him in my pin. I'll ride him tomarrow. looks great. your friend Evie

[ceeya]

something i found on wonder wheel after reading this thread.....joe

http://www.intarsia.com/About%20Wonder%20Wheel.html