Scroll Saw Village

Last post, I talked about lath art. Now that your curiosity is piqued, you wanna give lath art a try? Tom and Esther from LathArt How to and Patterns has a nice tutorial to get you started. The tutorial is nicely illustrated and takes you step by step through the process. They even provide a free pattern for your first project! While you are there, check out the rest of their posts. They give tips on finding suitable material, painting techniques, and design tips. Very cool.

One thing that amazes me most about scrolling, is the number of art forms that develop because of this simple tool. I came across Lath Art a while back and found it very interesting. Lath Art is a folk art that uses, oddly enough, lath. You know, those strips of wood used to hold plaster to the wall? Sometimes you’ll find fishermen using old lobster traps whereas more contemporary artists may use lattice or lumber stickers.

Lath art is similar to marquetry in that you use various shapes of wood to create a picture. Where marquetry relies on wood grain and color to define the picture, lath art relies on the position and direction of the lath strips to define detail and space. Each strip is cut into sections with the scroll saw, then individually colored. Before long, you have a wonderful piece of artwork to hang on your wall.

Lath Art Paintings has several examples of lath art. Take a look. You can really see how the direction of the lath makes all the difference in the world. It really is a fascinating art form and something that scrollers may want to try their hand at.

Cindy Mindy Pindy has a great blog that shows off her latest papercuttings. She has a assortment of scherenschnitte with a wide variety of styles ranging from abstract to traditional illustration. Take some time and look through her archives and check out her work. Its a great source of inspiration and may spawn a few ideas for your own scroll saw designs.

I love looking at galleries of other people’s work. I often go seek them out specifically. Unfortunately, the search engines I use only offer English speaking websites. Its a shame, because there is a big ol’ world out there. I stumbled across Bouyerchrist’s scroll saw gallery/blog awhile back. Bouyerchrist is located in Chambéry in France. The website is mostly a gallery of photos, so the language barrier won’t be much of a problem. You can use Babel Fish to translate the web page for you and you should get a good idea of what is being said. Check it out. Bouyerchrist has some wonderful scroll sawn artwork. I’m sure it will be a great inspiration to some of your own designs!

Last post, I talked about Adrian Iredale’s video on how he makes wooden gear clocks. It is pretty inspiring and he makes it look a little less intimidating. But, maybe you’re not quite ready to jump into the deep end just yet.

Jim Bumgardner of KrazyDad.com has written about his experience making a wooden gear clock. He isn’t a woodworker. In fact he has very little woodworking experience. But he was curious about how clocks work, so he ordered the Ascent clock kit from Wooden-Gear-Clocks.com. Granted, the gears were all precut, but that shouldn’t matter too much. As scrollers, we know how to cut. Its the precise assembly that seems overwhelming. But Jim was able to put together the kit with little trouble. You can read about his experiences here. Its pretty interesting and he gives a little writeup about how the clock works. Check it out!

When Allison White put together her blog to show off her intarsia and scrollwork, she didn’t quite know what she was getting into. Blogging, just like scrolling, can become quite addictive. Her blog, Willowshimmer Woodworks, highlights her artwork along with her thoughts about each project. Along with her woodworks, she shares some of her favorite quotes, funny cartoons, and her thoughts about life. It really is a neat scroll saw blog that has a personal and sentimental touch.

She has tagged each post so you can find the posts you are most interested in. Look under the Labels section for a list of her tags. She has a lot of great work and worth checking out.

I love blogs and blogging. Its a great sneak peak into some one’s lives to see what they’re up to. I especially love blogs related to my interests. Geno is a scroller and woodworker from the Adirondack Mountains of NY. He runs a scroll saw blog that he posts to several times a month. He posts his latest woodworking and scroll saw projects with some thoughts on each project. I’ve been reading his blog for several months now and really enjoy seeing new posts. If you get a chance, swing on by and check it out. It’s a great way to pass time when you really should be working!

Well, Steve over at Scrollsaw Workshop did it again. He knocks out so many great patterns, its hard to keep up with. So I usually only write about the truly unique items and this one takes the cake. This time it’s an Automata pattern. A what? Automata is a mechanical toy that mimics some sort of event or action. Steve’s pattern features a hand crank that makes a man play the piano.

Automata is something I’ve always wanted to try my hand at. Steve says this pattern is pretty easy build and can made with materials that are readily available. He has included a 2 part video explaining the parts of the machine and how he assembled them. Naturally the pattern is available for free and downloadable at his website.

Play it again Sam.

David at Scroll Saw Blog has put together a nice article on how he stack cuts bookmarks. It isn’t a tutorial per se, but does offer really great insight on how he approaches bookmark cutting.

Give his techniques a try. I think these would make really great gifts. He does quite well with selling them at craft fairs, too. Check it out.

OK. Time for a little shameless self promotion. I started a blog a while back called Free Scroll Saw Patterns. The intention was to distribute patterns I that I have created. Unfortunately, life has gotten in the way of my pattern designing. But someday soon, when all of the craziness has subsided, I’ll develop a few more patterns to add to the website. Until then, I only have the one pattern available.

This is my first attempt at a portrait. I used the only known photo of Billy The Kid. I think it turned out pretty good. Give it a try. And if you do, email me some pictures. I’d love to see how it worked out for you. Enjoy!