Intarsia novice kitten

[Rolf]

This is my second attempt at intarsia. I call this cheating Intarsia because I stacked the two woods when I cut them. The problem with that is you can't really work with the grain. I did it mostly for the practice in shaping.

The kitten was a kit from Kathy Wise that I picked up at the Open House. It is a great introduction to the process and the kit has everything you need to make 2 cats.
I didn't use the wood in the kit but substituted some very hard mahogany that was very hard to shape. The kit had western red cedar much easier to shape.
Doing the stack cut gives you two kittens with different coloring.
I am getting to the point with this that I will try something much more challenging.
You are all such inspirations.

[workin for wood]

Your definitely well on your way, congrats. Should have retraced the nose pieces onto some walnut or wenge. Looks like a santos mahogany...that's nice stuff, but really tough to do anything with. What's the white wood?
The shaping isn't bad...I'd like to see the blanket a different color too...it's not bad, but it blends too much into the cat. Your stack cut idea was pretty good thinking though..sort of a segmentation approach. Most of us use a tracing method when cutting our pieces. You would tape all the cat pieces together with masking tape before they are shaped, then set the taped up cat on top of the pattern with carbon paper underneath and trace the blanket piece. As you have surely discovered, the cat shrunk a bit in size after cutting, so to simply use the pattern as a guide would not work.

I'll be looking forward to seeing more stuff from you in the future!

[Paul S WI]

Good job Rolf - Just so happens I finished my first Intarsia piece this weekend. Look familiar? Not quite as, IMHO, you did a much finer job on yours. I admit I have a ways to go in learning Intarsia but am looking forward to it now. However, I did enjoy the project and have already picked out another. Will be looking for different woods to try on the next one.

What did I learn from this project? Sanding, sanding, and more sanding. Very little cutting and a whole lot of sanding.

[PuzzledMoose]

Nice job on those cats from both of you - wish I liked sanding ..lol

[MikeDingas]

Nice job, both. I just got my first Intartia book. So, I'm getting more serious about trying this artform. The more of your work I see, the closer I get to actually DOING one.

[Rolf]

Jeff, if I make them again I will do it the normal way and orient the grain appropriately and play with different woods. I agree as a minimum the blanket needs a third color. I don't have much of a selection yet. I actually did a little more with wood selection and grain on my first intarsia piece. I will post it here when I resize it.
Paul Ilike the wood you used better, I assume that it was what came with the kit.
The mahogany I used was hard to shape

[thecopperfish]

Good job Rolf! You are doing very well. These are very nice first pieces. Also good job Paul! You both are doing great! It's really fun to see new people learning intarsia. Keep up the good work guys!

Chris

[Janette]

Great Job!!

You're ready for one of my cats now!!

...with all the little pieces and vVVVVVV's

[Scroller Patroller]

Nice job Rolf! You might want to try some different colors and shades of Western Red Cedar. It's usually available just about anywhere and easy to cut, shape and sand. The color selection in WRC is endless! Watch out though!.....Intarsia gets into your blood and very addictive!

Rick

"In Nebraska USA...Where the west begins and the east peters out!"