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General Category => Brag Forum => Topic started by: Becky on July 20, 2010, 12:19:41 am
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This is Sheila's pattern from the Sept. issue of Creative Woodworks & Crafts. I knew when I saw it that I had to give it a try. It just appealed to my funny bone. What I didn't know going into it was how hard it would be. I cut all the pieces in a day but it took a little over a week to finish it. The wood is maple and I used TransTint wood dye for the colors.
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Oh Becky, That came out great! You did a wonderful job with a wonderful pattern!
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Superb job. Really looks nice. I like the colors that you used.
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Looks awsome Becky. Came out very nice.
David.
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Well worth the effort great job Becky
jimbo
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Hi, Becky. I love your Nut House Plaque! It really came out great and the colors are amazing! I found that lots of segmentation takes a while longer than I anticipate. Sometimes I look at the drawings and I think they would be a breeze and then when I actually do them it takes a while. I didn't know if it is just me being picky or what. I have only been designing segmentation pictures for a couple of years and I guess that I should probably put a difficulty level on the patterns but I don't feel I have a good basis to grade them. I hope you meant it was more time consuming than actually 'difficult' and that the instructions were clear. Let me know if there were any concerns because I want what I do to be good for everyone. Your thoughts on it are very important to me.
Thanks for showing it. It really is beautiful! :)
Sheila
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i love it, absolutely beautiful work !!
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you did a wonderful job with it looks great...good choice of colors it really makes it stand out. that is definitly one that belongs on my door lol
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That turned out AWESOME!! The wood dye was a good choice...nice job all around!!
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Nicely done. I like it.
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absolutely beautiful coloring. Good Job.
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Impressive work Becky ...........
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Love it!
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Looks great! I was also glad to find out specifically what you used for color! When I get enough pennies together I wanna try those tints.
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Thank you everyone. I don't post many of my projects but I was very happy with how this one came out and felt the desire to "brag" because it was a challenge for me.
Charlie, I spent what seems like a fortune on those dyes but you only use a few drops so I think they will last a good long while. I just need to find lots of patterns that want the same colors! I was at Woodcraft with my 10% off birthday card and the guy said maple can be hard to stain and suggested the dyes. He also said the colors would be much more vibrant than you would get in a stain but, like stains, they let the grain of the wood show through.
Sheila, it was really the leaves that almost did me in. I literally spent hours on those leaves. Part of my trouble is that I really didn't know what I was doing. All the patterns say shape the wood and assume the reader knows what to do. Maybe most people do. I looked at the pics in the magazine and gave it my best but I was winging it mostly. Shaping techniques might be a good idea for an article sometime unless I am the only person that doesn't find it obvious.
The only part of the instructions that I found confusing (other than the shaping business which is true of all instructions I have seen) was that I wasn't sure about the veins in the leaves. I scratched my head for a while before deciding I was supposed to saw along those lines too. In hindsight, that was probably a stupid thing to wonder about. If it's a line on the pattern, you cut it, right? ::)
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I don't think you are stupid for wondering at all! I appreciate the feedback you are telling me. It is funny, but when I fill orders, I am sure to let everyone know that I want their feedback on the patterns. That isn't a computer-generated form - I am really asking the question. I really want to know how to improve things.
I have been doing this a long time. And although I don't do a lot of intarsia and segmentation, I guess it comes naturally to me because of my other art background. I try to cover things from a beginners point of view so that everyone can enjoy the patterns and even new people can accomplish them without much difficulty. Sometimes I find I assume that others know things that a new person wouldn't. It isn't on purpose, but I miss it.
I had a customer ask me why I say some of the same things over and over in lots of my patterns. "Don't you think we know already?" they asked (they did say it nicely, though.) But I answered them that even if they know, it doesn't mean everyone knows. The instructions are there and you can follow them or not. I would rather err on the side of offering too much information than not enough.
I take your points very seriously and I think it is a great idea to offer maybe a step by step article on shaping (or several, if needed.) I also didn't realize that I should differentiate in the lines between cutting and just shaping. It never occurred that people would wonder.
So thank you very much for telling me. As I said, your project came out wonderful! I think you did a great job and I will work hard to make things easier on the next project. Paper is cheap. Wood and people's time are 'priceless'. Using another piece of paper to explain something more clearly is well worth it to me! :)
Sheila
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Becky, thanks for the info on the tints. I have picked them up and put them down a dozen times because of the cost. The results are obviously worth the investment. Again - absolutely beautiful.
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Becky, I think you did a beautiful job shaping the leaves and the colors are awesome.
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Oops, you mean I wasn't supposed to cut the vein lines on the leaves? LOL, no matter. I've had a couple of people (non-scrollers) ask me how I got the lines on there and seemed impressed by that level of detail!
I should have emphasized that I thought, overall, your instructions were great. As a relative beginner, I find the detail very helpful. If I don't need the instructions after I have gained more experience, so be it. I definitely learn new things with every new project and the vast majority have me scratching my head at least once or twice along the way. I've come up with several solutions to these problems that may not be original or new but which I can then apply to future projects.
What I also meant by saying it was a challenge was that it was probably the most complicated project I've done. It certainly had the most pieces (and why I about swallowed my tongue the other night when I read about an intarsia project using over 500 pieces). The letters, especially the little ones, were a challenge. But a challenge is good. I keep pushing the envelope with my skills and that'll only make them better. At the end of the day, it was the challenges I overcame that made me proud of what I had accomplished when it was finished.
And thanks to Julie and Intarsia92!
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You did great, Becky! You WERE supposed to cut the vein lines and then use them as kind of guide for the shaping. I think you did a wonderful job! I am glad you took on a challenge, as that is how you grow artistically! Thank you for all the kind words and I am happy you had fun!
Sheila