American Pow Wow

[workin for wood]

This is my newest creation...it's on the wall curing with coat one, I will sand and re-finish it 3-4 more times, once per week.
It really came out nice I thought...The indians skin is pink ivory.
The picture is only 224 pcs, the frame could be considered 284 pcs, but it is table saw inlay, so I'm not sure that counts for much. The half indian blankets in the frame are adapted from Malcom Tibitt's segmented bowl techniques. It's pretty big, but not too big...approx 34 tall 25 wide.
I especially like the dress shield made with burl...makore burl I think it was...I had that little piece sitting around for years, so I decided to give part of it a home.
The tee-pee is hickory, and the borders of the frame is cocobolo ...sneezy rash wood to some.
Hope ya'll like it.

[Gill]

My word, that's very good indeed. Do tell us more about how you made it.

Gill

[sheltiecarver]

Jeff,
That is so cool! Really nice job in selection of wood, and the joinery looks (from the small image) pretty -- well -- seamless!
And the frame is just perfect for it. If you can do that so well, no wonder plain ole store bought frames seem to distract from the project for you.
I'm with Gill - please tell us more.
Sandy

[workin for wood]

Yes, a frame has to add to the picture, otherwise it takes away.
this frame is not that difficult to do. This is a piece of maple...about 3.5 inches wide and a piece of bloodwood the same width, plus a piece of maple and a piece of bloodwood 3/16 wide. You cut a triangle with a small flat spot on top from the 3.5 in wide bloodwood. You set up a stop on the chop saw for all these cuts of course. Then you cut the thin strips for each side...then you go back to the big piece of maple and mitre that to the same angle as your triangle...end glueing all these pieces together. ends up big maple, red strip, maple strip, red triangle, maple stick, red stick , big maple board. The angles are all 45 degrees. Wait a day for the glue to be really firm, because of the end grain glue-ups. Use your table saw and trim a hair off each side to guarantee the new board is now square and parrallel. Now I cut the board into 1/8 in strips. remember, this means half your board turns into sawdust..so a 3.5 inch board becomes only 1 3/4 inch wide. Use a sacrifice board of the same width against the fence, and tape the board you are cutting the 1/8 strips to it each time for safety and accuracy...u need patience. Once all the new strips are cut, you remove the saw marks with a drum sander. If you don't have a drum sander, like me, make sure u use the highest quality "glue line rip" type blade that you can, when cutting the strips. flip all the strips over and glue them back up. when the glue is dry, run the new board threw the planer to clean it up, and then use your table saw to gently remove a hair off each side to square and parrallel the board.

this takes some planning...you want the board to be longer than the end result will be, so that you can cut your frame miters from the center of the design. Adding two of these blankets requires just a little more planning, but not alot.

There is a book, Malcolm Tibbits i believe, he is a segmented wood turner, and you can find this and more segmentation designs to enhance your intarsia, or other scroll work.

Too bad the photo has to be all shrunk down..this picture is pretty much flawless. A flawless picture is easy to do, the key is in the planning. You have to plan what to cut, when to cut, how to assemble, and what woods to use, before you begin. I build my intarsia's in sections, starting with the most difficult pieces and ending with the easiest. And the pattern is not the law, it's just the plan for where you want to end up. I combine the pattern and the finished pieces together to trace what my next piece will be.

[Charlie_1]

Excellent work

[minowevie]

Jeff, very nice indeed. I love the work, and the fraim. don't let that i am a indion, in fluence you. ark ark. just nice work. Evie

[Trout]

very nice....

Jeff your definitely raising the bar on the quality of work that I want to do on my projects....
I would like to see some of the details, any way of posting some close up pictures of the piece....

I'm working on a bass project and I might need some advice later on in the project....

Trout

[Daryl185]

very nice work Jeff absolutely stunning

[Sparhawk]

Very nice work indeed!

I can't let my wife see that. Our bedroom is decorated in a Native American motif and I don't need her adding something like that to my to do list.

[Gill]

Jeff, how do you decide which woods to use for different colors? Is it all down to experience, or do you have pre-finished samples which you can refer to? Or do you use a different technique?

Gill

[workin for wood]

Wood selection is done by experience I suppose. I dont have a color chart, but if for some reason I can't remember what a piece of wood will look like with a finish, I can always check a picture that I did in the past. I draw my own patterns, and I don't use any arrows or color codes like dark, darker, light, and what not. I'll reflect on the pattern, decide how to attack it and I'll write on certain pieces the actual wood I'm going to use. There has been times where I want a certain color, but don't have any wood that matches. I once spent an entire year hunting for the color blue. Everyone said there is no blue wood..but I had my suspiscion about that and sure enough I was right on that.

[Marsha]

This is a very beautiful piece of art. I'm not a lover of intarsia, but this is one of the best I've seen.
Thanks for sharing,
Marsha

[workin for wood]

here's that close-up, hope it helps