And Project #4 begins
Tuesday my order from MicroMark arrived. They make hobbyist and woodworking tools on a smaller scale than usual, probably starting with model makers and model train enthusiasts. I got a magnetic strip to hang up my metal tools within grabbing distance. The soup cans weren’t working—I kept knocking them over, and then there was the time I sliced my finger fishing something out. Not good. I also got a set of mini chisels for digging into those recalcitrant corners and leaf-tips. And I got a marking ruler, because it looked cool. I spent my post-lunch time at home straightening up my workbench. Order calms me.
My goal Wednesday evening was to get my design ready for copying. I want to work on it this weekend. I found a design I liked at a stencil site, and modified it for my use. I was following a suggestion in one of my books that said do the drawing full-size, then shrink it down on a copier. Once shrunk, you will have very fine lines, which is one of the problems I’ve been having—too thick lines means gaps between pieces where you don’t want them. The gaps on the stencil were too big if I didn’t want to rout every chunk separately, so I went over it in marker, traced it, and then put my own lines in.
Here’s the completed tracing, with the size it will be once I shrink it to 50% next to it, for comparison:
While I was at it, I thought I’d probably be a good idea to, you know, have a ground for this inlay. I was out of that maple I’d been using, so I grabbed a piece of alder, chosen because it was just the right size for the design, and I cut it into 4 pieces. I feel so powerful using my circular saw.
I’ll make a copy, size it with actual shell pieces and split up any too-big sections into separate pieces on the pattern, then make the multiple copies I need. I realized as I was numbering the pieces that this was a big project—55 individual pieces to saw. I could be nuts. Then again, I’m not sure there’s much difference in doing 1 55-piece project and 5 11-piece projects, in terms of learning. May as well do designs that excite me. That’s how I learned to play the guitar, by picking songs I really wanted to do and learning those chords. It all adds up.
