Scroll Saw Village

Daylight Savings is right around the corner, so what better way to celebrate warmer weather ahead than to have a Mini-Clock contest?  We need something to set forward on March 14th, right?  Cut or design a mini-clock and be entered to win a copy of Miniature Wooden Clock for the Scroll Saw, by Rick Longabaugh.  If you’re a pattern designer, I have made available a Mini-Clock Template for Inkscape.  The template is free, but the design is up to you!  If you’d like to learn how to use Inkscape to make mini-clocks, you can check out this video tutorial.

The contest is being held by Scroll Saw Village.  Details for the Mini-Clock Challenge can be found here.  Good luck.  But more importantly, have fun!

Did you survive the Holiday season?  Well, don’t relax too much, because  we’re throwing another contest at Scroll Saw Village! This time we’re focusing a bit on puzzles.  Puzzles are a lot of fun to cut and always a welcomed gift. This contest is open to everybody on Earth (however, special arrangements can be made for those outside our galaxy). This contest is sponsored by Dale’s Puzzles. He was kind enough to donate patterns for 1st (10 patterns), 2nd (5 patterns) and 3rd (2 patterns) place winners.

Entry is easy. All you have to do is cut a puzzle, take a pic, and post it in your User Gallery at Scroll Saw Village.  Be sure to post a link to your puzzle in the contest thread to be eligible.  Entries can be anything, as long as its a puzzle; a free standing puzzle, a jigsaw puzzle, tray puzzle, brain teaser puzzle, or (if you’re really ambitious) a Japanese puzzle box!

If you’d like another shot at winning one of these sweet prizes, you can also design a puzzle for the rapidly growing Pattern Library at SSV.  Design a free standing puzzle, tray puzzle, or template.

Winners will be drawn at random on February 4th, 2010 at 7pm MST in the Scroll Saw Chat Room.  Details can be found in the contest thread at SSV.  This should be a lot of fun.  I hope you take time to enter this fun little challenge.  Who knows, you just might win!

Special thanks to Dale for sponsoring this contest. He has a ton of really cool puzzle patterns on his website, so be sure to check him out. If you decide to make a purchase, please thank Dale for sponsoring this contest. Without him, this contest would not be possible.

Scroll Saw Village has added a live chat feature.  Talk in real time with fellow scrollers about the hobby we love.  The chat room is open 24/7 with a scheduled chat every Thursday at 7pm MST.  Once a month, we’ll pick a topic or invite a special guest to host a Q&A session.  For those of you who have taken the GIMP or Inkscape class, on Nov. 19th I’ll be hosting a live screencast in the chat room to answer any GIMP and Inkscape questions.  This is a great way to get your questions answered and demonstrated.    I hope you join us for our scroll saw chats.  We have a great time and look forward to seeing you there!

With Christmas right around the corner, its time to start thinking of making a few Christmas gifts for loved ones in your life.  To help motivate you to create a little Holiday sawdust, Scroll Saw Village is holding a contest! The winner will recieve a Rose Jewlery Box intarsia kit provided by Midlothian Woodworks, a $40 value.  Entry into this drawing is very easy.  Just post a picture at Scroll Saw Village of a cutting you intend to gift this Holiday season.  That’s it!  Want to increase your odds?  Post a Works In Progress tutorial in the forum as you put together your gift.  Include pictures and description and you’ll get another entry in this awesome drawing.  The winner will be drawn at random on December 1st, 2009.  You can find the entry details here.

While you’re at it, check out the other intarsia kits Midlothian Woodworks has to offer. Mike has a wide variety of kits to choose from and any one of them would make an awesome Christmas gift.  Be sure to thank him for sponsoring the contest too.  Without him, this fun little challenge would not be possible.

While we’re in our Holiday festivities mode, Scroll Saw Village is holding a Secret Santa.  Give and receive a cutting from a fellow scroller.  The deadline for registration is Black Friday (Nov. 27).  After which, you’ll get the name and address of of your recipient.  Put it in the mail and wait for your scroll sawn gift to arrive.  There’s a $10 cap on materials.  You might want to get started on your gift sooner than later to ensure it gets to the final destination on time.  You can register and find the details here.

The free online class on how to create scroll saw patterns with Inkscape is now available on DVD! This is the exact same series that you can download (and participate in) for free at Scroll Saw Village. So why offer it on DVD? Some folks have trouble downloading video because of dial-up issues. Others wish to have the convenience of learning in the comfort of their living room. Either way, we made the class available on DVD and CD. You’ll get 2 DVD’s with all of the video instructions and demonstrations. You’ll also receive 1 CD that includes PDFs of the written instructions plus the example images/illustrations used in the class. This 3 disk set has nearly 3.5 hours of video instruction, plus convenient written instructions. Perfect for beginner to advanced pattern designers. All this for only $12 (which includes shipping)! What a deal! Not only are you getting great information, you’re also helping to support SSG and future podcasts! Doesn’t that make you feel good? We’re also offering a bunlded package that includes the Inkscape Class and the GIMP class.  So if you want a copy of this amazing class, be sure to check out our DVD page and order yours now!

Note: This offer is good for US Residents.  Outside of the US, please contact me for more information.  This is presented in NTSC and on DVD-R format.  Some older DVD players may not play DVD-R formatted disks.

Welcome to the very last lesson in our free online class on how to use Inkscape to make your own scroll saw patterns.   This time, we demonstrate how to use the tools we learned up to this point to create an elk mini-clock.  The clock takes a standard 1 7/16″ mini-clock insert.  You can find these inserts online or at some local craft stores.  This lesson is a bit long, but you’ll see the entire process as we create this really neat desk clock.  You can find the finished pattern here.

You can find this lesson and others at Scroll Saw Village in the Village University forum.  You’ll find videos, written instruction, downloadable source material, and classroom discussion where you can have all your questions answered.  Be sure to stop by and check it out.

I hope you guys enjoyed this class and learned a thing or two. Inkscape isn’t a hard program to learn, it just takes a little practice (just like anything else). The possibilities are endless with this program and you can come up with unique designs that nobody else has. I hope you choose to share your talent with the rest of us and upload some of your creations to the Pattern Library. Scrollers are very appreciative of pattern designers. Plus, its a huge thrill when you see someone cut one of your patterns. I can’t wait to see what y’all will come up with. Anyway, on with the show!

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Welcome to Lesson 7 of our 8 part series as we learn to use Inkscape to make our own scroll saw patterns. This time we’re taking everything we have learned up to this point and applying it to design a trinket/potpourri box. This video moves fairly fast and I don’t spend much time teaching you how to use the tools. But everything that I have done in the video (with exception to the Dynamic Offset tool) have already been covered in previous lessons. So if you run into problems, be sure to review the previous lessons.
If you’d like to download the Dingbat font that I used in this design, you can find it at  Dafont.com. If you’d like a copy of the pattern designed in this demonstration, you can find that here.

If you enjoyed this pattern making series, please consider a small donation.
Proceeds go to supporting SSG podcast and other tutorials. Thank you for your support.
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This is lesson 6 of our 8 part series as we learn to use Inkscape to create our own scroll saw patterns.  This lesson, we learn to use the text tool.  Whether you’re wanting to create word art, or simply sign your patterns, we’ll show  you how to gain control over your text. This is a pretty quick lesson, but you should walk away with a good feel for what you can accomplish with the text tool.  Be sure to stop by the Village University forum at Scroll Saw Village to find the written instruction, as well as classroom discussion where you can have your questions answered.  On with the show!
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If you enjoyed this pattern making series, please consider a small donation.
Proceeds go to supporting SSG podcast and other tutorials. Thank you for your support.
Make A Donation

I think this lesson will be the most important of all of the lessons in this class. This time, we’re learning about nodes and editing. Nodes are what give vector graphics their power. By understanding how to edit these nodes, you’ll be unstoppable. It’s not difficult to learn, but it will take some practice. This video will show you everything you need to know to start coming up with really unique scroll saw patterns. You can find the written instruction, and classroom discussion in the Village University forum at Scroll Saw Village. Be sure to stop by and check those out.

If you enjoyed this pattern making series, please consider a small donation.
Proceeds go to supporting SSG podcast and other tutorials. Thank you for your support.
Make A Donation

Things are starting to get interesting in Lesson 4 of our continuing series as we learn to use Inkscape to create scroll saw patterns. This lesson, we discuss creating complex shapes using additive and subtractive tools to basic shapes. These tools are found under Path menu. We’ll be discussing Union, Difference, Intersection, Exclusion, Division and Cut Path. We’ll also touch briefly on Combine and Break Apart. Lesson 4 can be found here which includes this video, written instruction, downloadable source material, and classroom discussion where you can have all of your questions answered.
Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Blip.tv video.

If you enjoyed this pattern making series, please consider a small donation.
Proceeds go to supporting SSG podcast and other tutorials. Thank you for your support.
Make A Donation