GET INLAID

This post is overdue. It’s been one of those weeks. But I got back on the inlay horse this past weekend, with a new design I’m actually invested in. It’s simple overall, though there are some tricky sawing bits.

I have discovered that I tend to do better when the final design is a single, solid plate. It especially helps at the scribing and routing stage. Once I get into multiple pieces and plant fronds, it tends to accelerate towards hell at a breakneck pace.

I thought about what was solid, yet interesting, that I would want to do. Nothing came to mind. At some point along the way, I remembered my college RA’s goldfish (don’t ask me why). She had one of those pudgy ones (without the bulging eyes) that are so cute, and so I thought about something like that. I ended up finding this picture in Google images, printed it out, and worked up a drawing using my light table to trace it.

Then I had to figure out where I’d cut the pieces, based on size and colors. I planned to use MOP in gold, black, and white, and a small piece of ebony for the middle of the eye. There might end up being a small amount of engraving, if I’m feeling brave at the end. My first efforts were nothing to write home about. Since I hadn’t shrunk the image yet, I had to guess, and some pieces are numbered twice: once if they’re by themselves, and a second time if the pieces of shell I had could cover a couple pieces at once. It helps to number pieces BEFORE you make copies. I’ve forgotten before and it’s a pain.

Friday night I glued patterns to shell. I’ll tell you about the piece with the clamps on it when I get to sawing it. As I glued, I realized that I could consolidate a lot of pieces I’d numbered separately into a single piece. Granted, there’s some artistry to be done by making each piece separately. However, I decided that I really could use a win on this whole thing, and I figured the best way to improve my chances on that would be to keep the design as simple as possible. Bigger pieces break less, and minimize the number of tiny errors that will accumulate and tank the project. I decided that at this stage of the game that simple and well executed was preferable to complicated and begging to be executed. So I ignored a lot of subdivisions and looked for pieces that would work both in color, size, and figure. The pre-arranged subdivisions made this easier, though, because if there wasn’t enough room for a section, I didn’t have to decide on the fly where to divvy it up and try to recreate that line on every version of the pattern, which would’ve led to slight differences and a poor fit.

This was the last piece I sawed that day, and I’m a little more than half done sawing.  It is the piece of the body that will merge into the tail pieces, and it is a little daunting with all the ups and downs.  I consolidated a lot of them that were in the original picture but even so, there are tapered bits sticking out.   And yet I managed to saw them without breaking any!  I am unbelievably proud of this piece.  Proud enough that you must admire it from both sides.



The trick, of course, will be cutting the pieces that are supposed to fit with it equally well so that they actually fit.  There was some yard work to be done, and I wanted to leave it on a high note, so I quit sawing there.  I didn’t go back to it Sunday, as I was on the injured reserve list, and I was still basking in the glory of a good sawing day.  I didn’t want to ruin it.  I’ll work on it again this weekend.