WIP pics and info for "Segmented Eagle"

<HR style="COLOR: #c0aa94" SIZE=1><!-- / icon and title -->Skew had ask if I would do a sorta WIP of the "Segmented Eagle" that I completed earlier this year. I took pics along the way of that piece to show how I do my segmented projects. This will end up being a long thread. I will post a few pics each day or so thru to completion of the "eagle". There are over 25 pics that I will be posting to complete the process. I will type info for each pic.
The way I do my segmetation projects is not necessarily the right or wrong way...just my way. I tend to go after trying to get the realistic look during the shaping process that you see more so in Intarsia....therefore the shaping is the hardest part for me and takes the longest to complete. (also tends to be where I make my mistakes)
Any questions or comments along the way are welcome.
So here's the first set...
Lin

Pic one-I used 3/4" aspen and used blue painter's tape under the pattern so the pattern would pull off easily with the tape. After each piece was cut I put a number on the back of the piece (you can see #9 and #10 are flipped upside down) to match the numbers I had put on the spare pattern before I started cutting. I also lightly sand any burrs from the back edges of each piece as I cut. Don't sand the back of the piece itself just edges a bit to assure a good fit. I used a #2R blade for cutting. The aspen is fairly soft wood so a #2R could be used and helped me get a fairly tight fit...(small kerf) One of the points to make here about segmentation versus intarisia is the fact that if your cuts are not exactly on the line the pieces will still fit back together because you have cut it out from one piece of wood puzzle style.
http://www.geocities.com/creativewoo...s/eagleone.jpg


Pic two-shows what I decided to take off each piece to layer it for depth to show the right wing as being furthest away and so on....at this point in reality I messed up on how much to take it down on that right wing. The bottom of the right wing should be taken down the 1/2" you see but the top two pieces should have only been taken down 3/8". This error in my thinking cause me to say a lot of bad words when I realized my mistake...After I had sanded them down I ended up having to raise those top two pieces to make it look right....shows I am still learning.
http://www.geocities.com/creativewoo...s/eagletwo.jpg


Pic three-I measured and drew myself a line along the edge of the pieces to give myself a guideline for sanding to....
http://www.geocities.com/creativewoo...eaglethree.jpg

Pic four-shows a pic of the entire eagle laid out on the spare pattern before I start the sanding process
http://www.geocities.com/creativewoo.../eaglefour.jpg

Looks great Lin, look forward to the progress of the pics. Wouldnt mind trying that one myself one day.

For someone like me who doesnt have a drum sander or whatever to get the different levels after cutting from the one piece. Could you make it all in the thickness of the thinnest pieces and build the rest up with pop sticks or something?

Brett, If you don't have a way to take a lot of wood off....Inner pieces can be raised with just about any type of wood...ply or what ever on hand...the outer pieces are the ones that will be seen and any wood that would be used to raise them would have to be cut exactly the same on the part that would be seen and the same type of wood used. Even thou I did use a drum sander on a few of these pieces I could've done it all with a pnuematic sander. Many segmentation projects I've seen done by others don't have the layering that I'm doing. Many just drop a few pieces down 1/8" or raise a few 1/8" and round over the edges......I think I'm working my way up to trying out an intarsia project someday...I have done one...a little 6 piece dolphin...I did fine with the cutting but I really don't have all those neat woods in arms reach and am not ready to part with a ton of $$ to buy all those neat colors of woods. Even the WRC that JGR uses isn't something I've found much of in my area....Some at places like Lowes but they are high priced on their wood and their WRC doesn't look all that great for what they are asking for it...This pattern is not a hard one to do...It's only arond 21 pieces or so...I think it could be cut from 1/2" wood and not so much taken down as what I did...and look fine.
I always use the 3/4" aspen cause I have a place that I can buy large paneled pieces of it so any pattern I might want to do would fit...
You should try it.....you may find you enjoy this type of scrolling also...more work in the finihsing part of it...but each one has a lot of yourself in it....totally one of a kind type thing..
Lin

Im currently doing a small segmented mirror, but the eagle looks like one i'd really like to do one day.

Brett, Would love to see some pics of your mirror in progress....
I can tell you that this eagle is one of the easier segmented pieces I have done. There are lots of patterns out there for eagles but they all have you cutting the feathers out individually....This one the feathers are shown using veing lines. After cutting them with the #2R blade.....I recut them with a #9R blade to widen the lines out and keep the dust from clogging the line up...So much easier that cutting a shaping tons and tons of feathers....The original pattern for this eagle had another line across each wing so there would be three layers to the wing. I elected to drop one of the lines when I did it. Its a Scott Geilish pattern....I will look up the link and post it within this thread.
Lin

Six more pics and info on how I did the segmented eagle.
Lin

Pic five-shows how I set up the right wing for sanding. I use a sanding shim which I cut from cheap junk 1/4" ply. (I just held the pieces together and drew around them and cut it out..doesn't have to be perfectly cut...just needs to hold the pieces) Then I use two sided thin plastic carpet tape on the back of the four pieces and even little pieces of the tape along the inside of the pieces to hold them together if needed. You will be surprised at how well this thin plastic tape holds. Generally you don't want to leave it sit on your pieces overnight. Makes them hard to get apart the longer it sits.
http://www.geocities.com/creativewoo.../eaglefive.jpg


Pic six- shows the sanding shim attached to the backside of the right wing pieces. You can see the line I drew to give me a guide on how much to take this set of pieces down.
http://www.geocities.com/creativewoo...s/eaglesix.jpg


Pic seven-shows the front side of the right wing with the sanding shim attached.
http://www.geocities.com/creativewoo...eagleseven.jpg

Pic eight-shows me started to sand this set using a pneumatic sander. I did not check how much air was in the sander (how firm it was) nor which grit sleeve I had on it from previous use. Looking backwards....I should have tried a lower grit sleeve and pumped up the sander a bit to make it firmer. Sanding it this way was going to take a long time becasue I didn't do the checks...(ya know one of my CRS moments) so I came up with another idea to get the wood off this set quicker.....
http://www.geocities.com/creativewoo...eagleeight.jpg

Pic nine-I decided to run this set thru the drum sander using a 60 grit belt to take the wood down the 1/2" ....This was a good idea had I thought it thru totally before jumping the gun....I should've stopped when the pieces were 3/8" thick and I would have save myself a lot of time in fixing my mistake....The next pic shows why I over did it.
http://www.geocities.com/creativewoo.../eaglenine.jpg

Pic ten-This is the right wing set laid into place after the many trips thru the drum sander.....Whoops....I saw it as soon as I laid them into place...The upper two pieces need to be 1/8" higher than the bottom...Now I have to cut accurately (or at least the outer part that will show has to be cut accrately) a piece of 1/8" aspen to raise the top two pieces....I didn't have any 1/8" aspen so had to resaw and plane and sand down a piece to do this....Cost me another couple hours or so fixing my error.
http://www.geocities.com/creativewoo...s/eagleten.jpg

Brett and any other that are interested in this pattern,
Here's a link for the site that this pattern came from. The name of the pattern is "Golden Eagle". I dropped one of the lines on each wing when I cut it and made it into a "Bald Ealge" by changing the colors.
Lin
http://www.intarsia.org/index.asp

Five more pics and info to go with them...
Lin

Pic 11-I used a sanding shim on the left wing and then the head and body area. I tapered the left wing as a whole to go behind the body and shaped the outer edges and the tips then took off the upper two pieces to sand more off the bottom to give it the layered feathers look...I will do the same with the right side with out the tapering after the glue has dried on the piece I had to cut to raise it back up... The head and body I sanded as one till about 1/8" was taken off then took the head off and continue taking the body down a bit more...then just the body itself down a bit more...leaving the leg and shoulder a bit higher.
http://www.geocities.com/creativewoo...agleeleven.jpg


Pic 12-Rough shaping along the way as I layering the pieces...
http://www.geocities.com/creativewoo...agletwelve.jpg

Pic 13-Pic from another angle to how how the left wing is tapered behind the body
http://www.geocities.com/creativewoo...lethirteen.jpg

Pic 14-Close up of the tapering and shaping on tail and body area so far.
http://www.geocities.com/creativewoo...lefourteen.jpg


Pic 15-shows how I know where to sand to when I round over the edges. Draw a pencil line then roll it down to meet the piece below...Placing the piece back in every so often to check your work.
http://www.geocities.com/creativewoo...glefifteen.jpg

That sure is looking good, the different thicknesses, tapering all working tegether well

looking good...good thread btw

Failed to mention in the pics info....The sanding tool you see in pic 11 and 13 is called a "Bow Sander". I have a two styles of them and have found them to be a great asset to have for segmentation and/or intarsia. They really got a work out with this eagle project. There were lots of areas I couldn't get to with the pneumatic sanders and the bow sander did the job and fairly quickly also considering it is used by hand.
Lin

Thanks for pointing that out Lin, I hadn't noticed it but now that I have, I can see I gotta get one. You're also posting more pix than I saw in the last WIP, it's interesting to see some of the "tween" stages. Good stuff! :)

Got a plan for a bow sander somewhere, on the list of things to make one day.

Brett, You need to break donw and make it....You will find it an invaluable tool once you do and use it...I use mine when I making bandsaw boxes also...and have grab it for other uses besides the segmentation.
Lin

A few more pics and info...before I work a couple twelve hour days...
Lin

Pic 16, 17, 18 and 19 all are different angle shots after all shaping has been done..with the exception of the eye....I did raise and round it but it looks like his eye is bulging out....I didn't get a pic after I fixed it but what was done was I sanded both pieces down some and left the outer eye almost flush with the head and barely rolled the edge...and the pupil ended up being just a hint above the outer eye and then it looked right . All that's left to sanding now is hand sanding all pieces with 320 grit then next pic will be of the coloring..
http://www.geocities.com/creativewoo...glesixteen.jpg



http://www.geocities.com/creativewoo...eseventeen.jpg


http://www.geocities.com/creativewoo...leeighteen.jpg


http://www.geocities.com/creativewoo...gleninteen.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lin

Brett, You need to break donw and make it....You will find it an invaluable tool once you do and use it...I use mine when I making bandsaw boxes also...and have grab it for other uses besides the segmentation.
Lin

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I agree, but I am the king of procrastination LOL :rolleyes:

Brett, I gotta say it....I think my hubby could relate to you extremely well.....cause I think he is the "King" of procrastination.........LOL
Lin

Had hoped to get one of those sanders last months.... but received one of those little belt/disk sanders instead... it's a start :)
Still love that eagle and seeing it progress........ not sure I'd have that much patience tho.

As for King of procrastination..... ha.... my "boys" have that one covered.. the two of them have been building that shop inside the shed for two months now..... there have been lots of coffee/cookie breaks, runs to the hardware store, runs to the brother's house for some other tool, redesigning when things didnt' work as they thought.. really... I think it's an excuse so life won't return to normal just yet! lol

Did I say "normal" ? hahaha.... won't happen.... it's always chaos here

Juvy

Juvy, I reality...the layering, rough shaping, and final sanding doesn't take as long as te pics make it look....once you get rolling on it. It tends to take me just about as long to decide what to do as the actually doing of it.....lol
I'm in process now of cutting this same eagle again for a customer...I cut and did all the layering and over half the rough shaping last Sunday...Will get all the sanding done and started on the coloring this week-end....Hoping to be at backer board point by next week-end...so if I wasn't a week-end wood worker....the entire project could be completed in a week with no problem...
Lin

More pics....coloring and beyond.
Lin

Pic 20- shows the pieces after coloring...I used three colors of minwax stains...dark walnut, english chestnut, and early american on the wings and body. Beak, feet and outer eye are done using woodburst stain...colonial maple....I sanded most back off on the outer eye to lighten it. Black leather dye on the pupil and white pigmented gel varnish on the tail pieces and head...I ended up going back over these white pieces with thinned white oil paint to whiten them up a bit more.....
http://www.geocities.com/creativewoo...agletwenty.jpg

Pic 21-The eagle after coloring put together to check and make sure I didn't miss any areas with the colors...I have done that and have learned to look before gluing it to a backer....
http://www.geocities.com/creativewoo...etwentyone.jpg


Pic 22-I laid out the piece on an 1/8" backer...(used a piece of cherry ply I had laying around-thinking I wanted to use a darker backer on this one rather than the normal BB to help hide any seethru in the veinging areas) and drew around it to give me my cutting line. Normally I just wing it while cutting the backer by just staying approx. 1/8" inside the drawn line but because of the wing tips on this piece I redrew myself a line to follow while cutting. You can see both lines on the pic...light line is the original and the darker line is the redrawn line for me to follow. I use a #2r blade when cutting the backer....really thin wood and cuts fast.
http://www.geocities.com/creativewoo...etwentytwo.jpg

Pic 23-The backer cut and laid out on the extra pattern..
http://www.geocities.com/creativewoo...wentythree.jpg

Brilliant work, thanks for the step by steps show.

I wonder if I could do that and colour it to look like the aussie wedge tailed eagle (my fav)

Brett, I'm sure you could make it look like your favorite eagle...this pattern was of a golden eagle and I just changed the colors to suit myself..(just stained scrap pieces to find my colors)
More pics coming this week-end...of what I do to the backer before glue up and the glue up process itself...almost done thou....I think I have 4 or 5 pics left to go....
Lin

Pic 24- After cutting the backer I color the edges of it so it won't stand out while hanging on the wall. There are lots of ways to do this. Many use stain or ink...I use a brown marker. Notice thou I didn't use the marker on the areas where the tail will be glued...First time doing one of these where white ends up being on outer piece...so I thought leaving that area without the edges colored would be the way to go
http://www.geocities.com/creativewoo...twentyfour.jpg


Pic 25- Next up I seal the back of the backer with lacquer. Three light coats...sanding with 400 or 500 grit after the first coat.
http://www.geocities.com/creativewoo...twentyfive.jpg



Pic 26-Then the gluing can begin. I edge glue some of the pieces...checking the fit of the entire piece while I'm edge gluing...then I place all the piece on the backer and pick out a base point to glue from...On this piece I used the eye and beak area that I had edge glued together. Holding everything in place I pulled that set out and put glue on the back of it and then placed it back in..still with all the other pieces in place...making sure no part of the backer is showing...let that piece dry to the backer
http://www.geocities.com/creativewoo...etwentysix.jpg


Pic 27-The rest of the glue up can begin. I did half one day and the other half the next day...Notice I used pieces of ply under the clamps to protect my project from the pressure.
http://www.geocities.com/creativewoo...wentyseven.jpg


Pic 28- This is the final pic of the Eagle project with four coats of semi-gloss lacquer on him. I lightly sand the entire piece with 600 grit after the first and sometimes second coat if needed....Hanger on the back and remember to sign it......I also put the year that I made the piece in also. I use a sharpie to do this...Easiest way I have found for signing...
http://www.geocities.com/creativewoo...tedeaglelg.jpg

Is a sharpie the same as our texta? ..... felt tip pen?

You could also use a pyrography pen for signing... might be even more permanent? On something you put this much work into you really want the next generation to know who made it don't you? :)

Did you use a dab of high gloss on the eyes?

Wish I had your patience.... but somehow I can't see myself doing intarsia.. at least not something with this many pieces. Do you have any fingers left after all that sanding? It sure look great tho.

Thanks for posting the how-to pictures here

Juvy

Juvy, Yes same as your texa. Never have really tried the woodburning thing....would like to but no time. I also place my label (sticker) on all pieces I make that have my website addy on it. Helps for future business.
Generally I put a little white dot on the eye of these pieces using a toothpick and acrylic paint....but this one didn't seem to need it. This piece seems to say more about the wings than the eye to me anyway so I didn't do it....pupil on this one is reallly small also.
This piece is not a lot of pieces. Its just a few over 20 which is really an good number to work with. Most of the pieces are large also...that to is a plus when I comes to the sanding part. I do think everyone that is into scrolling should try at least one intarsia and/or segmented piece to find out if its' something they might like to add to their project line. I to didn't have any desire for a long time to try one of these. I didn't figure they would sell and didn't want to do all the sanding involved in them. I started out just doing one that was about 20 pieces just for fun....and sold it. Got another order for one and then left it alone for more than a year. Decided this type of project would be good for x-mas gifts for the family members and would do them over a several year span....one or two a year and give them to family at x-mas time. Now I have done one for my brother, one sister, one daughter, and have three more to do to finish up the family members.....but now they are selling. So having a hard time getting at least one done for a x-mas gift this year.....lol
See what I started.....
Lin

I only wish I could sell like you do! last months did fairly well at the club's cottage, but this month.... it's half over and all I sold was 6 bucks worth.. that's not going to pay for materials. :( Can't keep making stuff if this is all we're getting.
Now it's a slow time of year and there are problems like rebuilding of the road and a popular cafe neaby being closed.... so am hoping it'll improve again soon.
Anyway.... we did sell a piece of intarsia yesterday.... our club's carver had a cute little frog on a mushrom... the lady fell in love. That's the second frog we've sold in two months time. Frogs are still in.
One couple bought two 40 year calendars and that was it... not good for 7 hours sitting there....
Thinking more and more maybe folks are right and I should give e-bay a try, but I believe that once you put things there the chinese will have what you sell copied a months later .... selling it for next to nothing. Would much rather stay a bit more exclusive.

Oh and got myself into trouble.... on two of the items I put my own label ( left from t-shirt days saying " Juvy Original" ) and just like back then I put my phone number on the back... oh sheesh.. found out quick that's not acceptable..... so I glued the shops own label over it. Oh well.... not like I have ever gotten a call for any orders...

Juvy

Lin,

Wonderful thread really enjoyed it. :) ;)

Have to say also you have me very interested in the bow sander. I will enquire locally about belt options and see about one of those too. ;)

Thanks

Just wanted to bring this back to the top .... this eagle is too good to be missed by anyone :)

also..... since I'm already here.... just posted this link in the "inspirational" section..... this is a website showing quilts carved and watercoloured in wood!!!!!
Unbelieveable stuff
http://www.gofraser.com/photos.htm

Juvy