I love my job. There is always something new and exciting to work on, and it seems that I never run short of ideas for patterns for scrolling, painting and other types of creating. I think that the variety of mediums that I create in help keep me creative and always thinking of new things to make. It keeps me fresh.
After the past week or so of cutting over 50 dozen simple shaped ornaments, I was ready for something a little different. With the Valentine’s Day holiday quickly approaching, I decided to make some fun and detailed pieces for the scroll saw using hearts as the theme and decorating them with pretty Damask motifs.
I just love Damask designs. The wide variety of beautiful flowing shapes works so well with scroll sawing, too. I am thrilled at the popularity of Damask these days and I think it lends a classic look to many types of decorating. It adapts so wonderfully to the scroll saw, too. While it looks quite intricate at times, it is also very forgiving for those who are perhaps new to cutting and small deviations from the designs are not really noticed. Because of this, it is fun and realxing to cut.
Over the past couple of days I drew up some new heart designs with some Damask cutting. Not only can these pretty pieces be used for Valentine’s day, but they are also appropriate for any romantic occasion, such as a wedding, anniversary, or just in a romantic themed setting. I think they are timeless and can be appreciated all year round.
The first piece I did was a Damask candle tray with hearts. I chose a pretty piece of aspen wood that I had here which was planed to ½" thick. I liked the creamy look of the aspen, and I felt for this design that I didn’t want the grain very pronounced, as I thought it would interfere in the design. The results were very pretty:
While the cutting was somewhat detailed, I found using a small blade and a light hand worked fine. The aspen was nearly as soft as pine to cut, and it could probably be mistaken for poplar, but the ½" thickness of the wood gave it the strength necessary to hold the design. I was very happy with it.
I haven’t decided how to finish it yet, as what you see here is raw wood. I may spray it with lacquer and then photograph it for our site and catalog, but I may also add some of DecoArt’s Metallic Lustre wax over it to give it a different look. They have a new color called Rose Gold which is absolutely beautiful, and may be the perfect finish for it. We will have to see …
I also created a new set of six pretty Damask embellished ornaments:
What you see here is half of them. I stack cut two layers for this set, which will also allow me to finish them in a couple of different ways. The pieces with the deeper grain are cut of 3/16" ash hardwood. I believe I will leave those pieces in their natural color, as the ash makes a beautiful piece. The thinner pieces (1/8") are destine for something else. I am still thinking about it though. I have a couple of ideas fighting in my head and I need to decide which way to take them. What are are seeing is only half the set, as I need to cut the other half today. These were fun and relaxing for me to do, and it felt good to slow down a bit and enjoy the process.
I hope to finish up the cutting process today, as well as begin the finishing process. I also need to work on some other heart shaped ornaments that I am going to paint. I showed you those the other day (they had the beveled circles in the center).
So much to do!
It is all fun though and makes life interesting. I hope to show you more photos tomorrow of some of the finished pieces.
Until then, have a wonderful Tuesday! :)
via Tumblr http://davidpires578.tumblr.com/post/137154752309
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