Swimming Otter Intarsia

[Claymore]

Hi,
Here`s number one of two Otter Intarsia`s I am doing for a customer on Mull, this one is the swimming one with reeds, made from Oak, Silver Birch, Sycamore and Beech and measures approx 20" x 10" x 1 1/2"...... the customer sent me a picture to copy and made my own pattern...... as with many Intarsias for it to look better they should be much thicker but for wall mounting you are limited to 2" max. The second one is same size but standing on a rock and I will be starting that next week BUT the best bit is I will be making some life sized ones for the visitor centre    which is the direction I want to go.... I used to do stone/wood carving years ago at college and made quite a few large wildlife stuff including some for churches (restoration) so getting back into the big stuff is great.
As always the photo is before its been waxed to avoid reflections and once its waxed it will bring out the rich Oak colouring which started life as a Priory drop leaf dining table (£5.00 at a charity shop) to buy such good quality Oak it would be very expensive and I still have 3/4 of it left.
Hope ya like him

Brian

[spirithorse]

Great work, Brian!
Thanks for sharing.

I was wondering why you consider 2" the max for wall hanging intarsia?
I did a Garnet Hall pattern that he calls Ying Yang and it is shimmed up in some
areas making it a total of about 2" and never really gave any fore-thought to how
much would be too much.
Here is a link to the page showing the Ying Yang pattern by Garnet Hall.
http://www.sawbird.com/patterns_fantasy.htm
God Bless! Spirithorse

[Intarsia92]

Very nice, Good choice of woods used.

[Claymore]

Great work, Brian!
Thanks for sharing.

I was wondering why you consider 2" the max for wall hanging intarsia?
I did a Garnet Hall pattern that he calls Ying Yang and it is shimmed up in some
areas making it a total of about 2" and never really gave any fore-thought to how
much would be too much.
Here is a link to the page showing the Ying Yang pattern by Garnet Hall.
http://www.sawbird.com/patterns_fantasy.htm
God Bless! Spirithorse

Hi,

I try and keep most of my intarsias under 2" deep mainly because they stand out off the wall too much for most UK houses, I did one at almost 3" thick and although the customer liked the design they asked if I could make it flatter to the wall if you know what i mean?  things like my giant Red Kite and my 7ft Osprey I am working on will get away with being much chunkier. Its strange how different countries tastes and styles vary and I seem to like the American/Canadian styles.....maybe its because Scotland is similar to a mini version of the Rockies  .
I haven`t seen the Sawbird website before and there are some beautiful patterns.

Cheers
Brian

[spirithorse]

Thanks for the reply, Brian,
It's always nice to compare opinions about the hobby and
consider other thought processes.
God Bless! Spirithorse