Seaweed Trees – Right Tree Cutting Begins

It’s so good to be back at the scroll saw table! It’s been four years since I last strung a blade. And this was the perfect project to get me going again. Every cut made it start coming alive and finally looking like a tree.

This post is part of the Follow My Carving Series
See all posts for this carving

Tuning the Table

The first order of business was getting my scroll saw table ready for cutting.

I gave the surface a nice wax and buff, so everything moved smoothly. And, I oiled the bushing and checked the armature brushes.

Then it was time to tune the blade. Being a multi-instrumentalist, that’s one of my favorite parts. It’s like putting new strings on a guitar.

Uh Oh! Weak Spot

 

There were some really big waste wood sections. I had to be super careful toward the far left side of the piece to keep the longest limb from breaking.

Since this is my first time to work in plywood, I thought it would be strong enough to hold without anchoring the furthest limbs.

But, I should have anchored them to the left-side frame. Lesson learned, and I modified my master pattern.

Not anchoring them made the whole limb hang by one junction (the right-most arrow in the picture above).

Removing the Pattern was Messy

This is also the first time I’ve used the Krylon spray adhesive on something that had to sit days between drilling and cutting.

It came off fine in most sections, but a few required getting my X-acto knife under the edges and scraping a bit.

The nice thing is, unlike my carvings, I’ll be sanding the entire surface of this piece before I oil or stain it. (Haven’t decided which I’ll do yet.) And that should remove any sticky spots and residue.

Finally Done!

I’m very proud of the way this piece turned out, especially considering how much I labored over the drawings.

(Yes, there is a reason I take shots off angle and rarely show the whole piece. Patterns are a big part of this industry and I plan to put these up for sale after I finish the project.)

More Cutting Underway

I’m already cutting the right side tree limbs.

And next I’ll be playing with the distance for the layers, and how I’m going to hang it.