Designing Gone Bad

Sometimes, when I hear a friend or a family member has a special occasion coming up, I get ideas on something to make for them.

Not every occasion, though, because a sign for every occasion, in one family, would get old fast.

I started playing around with filigrees and wingdings seeing if I could make something pretty.

But it ended up looking more like an octopus spider of sorts!

That just won't do.

Maybe I'll have better luck later.

Harebrained Ideas

Why is it that when I'm ridiculously busy that I get these creative sparks to do new and different things?

Like I have the time to implement them.

I have a folder on my computer dedicated to things to make later...and then a physical file of sketches and ideas that come to me throughout the day.

It feels a little like procrastination, but it really, really isn't.  I don't have the habit of putting things off.  I'm more of a doer, can't sit down for a second, and someone that loves adores checking things off lists.

But this one, this one, didn't hit my "make it later" pile.

A friend of mine, his profile picture on facebook, is a drawing caricature of himself.

Last week, I got the harebrained idea to make a wood carving out of it.  And, then, just stain the drawing outline in black, like ink!

Like I had the time.

But, I made the time.  I was so excited when it came off the machine, I was bouncing around the house.  We even had our friend come over this weekend to get it because I couldn't keep the secret.

His laugh, chuckle, and smile, when he saw it, made my day.

Big thanks to my hubby for re-drawing our friend's sketch in Illustrator for me, and making it possible.  Sometimes the harebrained ideas are the best ones.

Repairing Wood - Wood Glue and Wood Filler

I often find myself repairing wood.  Maybe it is broken.  Maybe someone else tried to fix it.  The first is always an easier fix than the latter.  

To remove old glue, a heat gun is a handy tool to have around.  It won't, necessarily, get all the glue off, but it helps.  You just have to be careful not to scorch the wood.

The two broken pieces here, were gorilla glued onto the main piece, but were crooked.  (Regular gorilla glue, although it works on wood, is not ideal.)  A little heat separated them nicely.

One of the hardest things about woodworking is patience.  When fixing an item like this, I'll have to work in sections.  I'll work on attaching the smaller carved piece to the larger carved piece first.

I did a rough sanding over everything, trying to get the old glue off first.  And, what I couldn't get off, I just roughed up.

If a piece of wood breaks like this, and it hasn't been "fixed" like in my situation, it's best not to sand.  Leave it be.  It should perfectly match up to the other side, so when you apply the glue, it'll clamp together nicely.

Get a good wood glue.  Any kind will do.  I like using little brushes as it helps me be more precise and not get glue on my jeans.  Thoroughly coat the area.

Clamps are a woodworkers best friend.  If you don't have any, ask a neighbor!  If they don't, you can use rubber bands and weights.  Just make sure everything is level and back together as it should be.

If someone tells you that you can stain wood glue, they are lying.  Once clamped, get a wet rag and wash that stuff off!

Handy tip: For getting glue in to small, hard to reach places, a syringe works great!  This one is re-purposed from my toddler's Tylenol bottle.  (Don't get me started on teething!)

Gloves are good, too.  I tend to use my fingers a lot to wipe glue here and there.  This way, my skin is protected.

Here is where patience comes in.  You have to wait for the glue to dry.

Ugh.  I know.

You can work on something else in the meantime.  And, once it's dry, then you can come back and do the next step.

When I reattached the carving, it ended up with 3 clamps, a rubber band, and a weight on it!  In the end, just do whatever you have to do to get them to stay together evenly.

The best part about wood glue is that once an area is broken, and fixed, it's unlikely it'll ever break again.  Okay, okay, it's unlikely the wood will ever break on that particular grain line again.  That's because the glue bond is stronger than the grain bond.  

Another BFF of the woodworker is wood filler.  This helps seal gaps in the wood, and give a nice smooth finish overall.

I'm not a huge fan of wood filler, because I've yet to find one I really like.  I tried a fourth this weekend, that was pretty expensive, but I have to admit it did a really great job.

Note: If you're going to be staining the wood afterward, you'll need to make sure the wood filler is stainable.  If it isn't, there is no way, in the world, the wood filler is ever going to tint.

This piece had some work done already.

The can will tell you to apply, and let the filler dry.  The above is what happens when you do that.  Gloppy.  Mess.  And, filler isn't easy to sand, either.  Especially on something that's carved.

I tend to apply, let sit for a couple seconds, and then immediately sand it off.  This does two things.  One, it gets all the excess filler off really quickly and easily.  Two, it adds dust from the wood, created by the sandpaper, in with the filler.  This, I've found, helps it stain better later.  (I've also used this "sanding right away" technique while glue is drying, when I won't need a filler, and it works pretty well!)

For the gloppy piece, a little piece of coarse sandpaper will do the trick.  I've found hand-sanding is always better in these situations.  Power tools can get out of control really quickly, sanding way too much away.

So, when it's all done, glued, wood filled, and sanded, the pieces are once again renewed and alive, and ready for staining!

There's rarely a need to throw perfectly good things away.  They just, sometimes, need a little TLC. 

Joy, Thankful, Home, Family, and Loved

Sometimes I buy wood signs from other people, and my husband just shakes his head at me.  Ya, I know.  But, when you work with signs all day long, the last thing you want to do is make one for yourself.

Except, see, I'm creating this wall collage in our master bedroom of family pictures, and I thought it'd be nice to break it all up with little signs with special words on them: joy, thankful, home, family, and loved.  I'm hoping it all ends up looking like a mural of sorts.  A collage of family.  At least something good and not haphazard.

When I was done working on some custom orders this week, I thought I'd sand some of these little signs I'd carved out for us on this gorgeous wood I've been dying to use for something.

Keep in mind, I only work while the baby naps.  

For whatever reason, I posted the first one to instagram.  You know, the social networking place of pictures?

Then, I followed suit with the others.  And, without even planning it, my comments matched up to the block I had just finished.  

Take a look:

It's fun when things work out this way, without really, any effort.  

Carving, Part I - The Software Design

The first part of any carving project doesn't normally begin holding a piece of wood.  Although, I can't say that it doesn't happen that way, sometimes.  Just only on rare occasions.

It usually starts here:

That's a lie.  It usually starts here: 

Then, I open my software.  Because staring at a blank board, without an idea, is really boring.  I'm sure it's akin to a writer with writer's block.

The business owns a CarveWright machine, and I use it's Project Designer software on my laptop to create all of my projects.  I feel like I'm giving away a trade secret, but I doubt all of you will run out and get one of your own.

Once a design is nailed down, that's where the blank board comes in:

I can specify the board dimensions, and pretty much create anything I want on it.  Any fonts that are on my computer can be used on a project, but some do carve better than others.  There are patterns inherent in the software I can use - like scrolls, filagrees, etc, but I find most of the time, I'm using some other form of clipart or artwork.

The use of Illustrator, FireWorks or other computer graphic software to manipulate pictures and text, so that it is a nice carvable object, is not uncommon.  But, that part, I leave up to my husband.  The last time I tried to use FireWorks, I think I cussed a lot, slammed my laptop shut, and left the room!

Since this isn't a software tutorial, I'll skip what all those nifty buttons at the top of the menu are for, so as not to bore you with details.  

I just keep playing until I come up with something I like:

  

This whole process takes anywhere from 30 minutes to infinity.  I find that sometimes nailing down the project design with my clients is the hardest part.  Other times, it's easy peasy.  Just depends.  This is why I say the 2-3 week processing time is after the design is complete.

This software is also where the board images of the drafts originate.  They look something like this, and are a screenshot of my laptop, cropped:

So, that's step one in carving a project.

Join us next time when Carving, Part II goes into detail on how a design becomes a carving on the machine.  

Sometimes, I tell the wood pile what it’s going to be. Sometimes, it tells me.

I’ve had this piece of reclaimed cedar in my wood pile for quite some time. But, it had a huge bow in it.  If you don’t work with wood, then I’ll tell you, we like nice flat pieces of wood….not ones that curve all on their own.  I can’t slide that through a carving machine, and it’s incredibly difficult to work with.

That being said, I decided something had to be done with it, because I’m all about eco-friendly and if that cedar tree had to be cut down for wood planks, than the least I can do is turn it’s bowed self into something pretty.  I can’t just toss it out.

So, I get this idea to carve a tree.  Yep, curly, whirly tree.  I copy the drawing onto a piece of wood, and then start the scroll sawing adventure.

I’ve gotten pretty good at this scroll sawing thing, it’s like the scroll saw and I have become one.  I know when to turn, when it’s going to fight with me, and when it’ll run smoooooth. Oh, yeah.  I can tell by the grain pattern if the scroll saw will try to jump or fuss.  This is important if you are going to try to cut something out as intricate as this tree.

So, cut, I did.  Just as soon as I got a section done, I realized the wood was getting caught on the plate.  Ugh.  So, I removed the part of the board that wasn’t part of the end design.

This is where I went wrong.

First of all, it would have been better to leave the wood on, and just use painter’s tape to keep it in place until I was finished.  Because what followed was….

I’m turning the board, trying to make these curls, and I’m not paying attention to the other side of the board that’s already done.  Why would I?  It’s already done.

But, see, now that part got caught on the plate, and…..

Yep, cracked off, it did.

This upset me.  It’s upsetting to painstakingly get something like this done and perfect and then have it crack off just because you don’t have two sets of eyes.

I need more eyes!!

Secondly, well, it’s also, apparently, difficult to scroll saw a piece of wood that has a bow in it.  Who knew?

Probably lots of people, but not me.

Suffice it to say, cracks in limbs happened several more times, but I figure, it’s a learning process, right?  So, I keep going.  I get it done.

It’s glued, sanded, and awaiting a second coat of polyurethane right now, and will join the myriad of other items strewn across this house as first tries I couldn’t part with.  I’m lucky that my husband doesn’t mind the artistic rejects I don’t feel comfortable selling.

Oh, and I added birds.  Because trees need birds.  That’s just the way it is.

There will be more trees, and some for sale on Etsy.  I just have to hone the skillz, and find the right board.

Something good came out of it all – artwork for our home.  And, also a cat and some birds that you will find on Etsy in the next week or so.  Sometimes I tell the wood it’ll be a tree, and then it tells* me, “Ya, but I’m going to be a cat and some birds, too.”  I see things in wood now.  It’s strange, quirky, and I like it.

* Note to reader: The wood doesn’t actually talk to me.