GET INLAID

Did a little sawing yesterday. I’ve switched to 3/0 saw blades; I’d started with #3s. You can see the difference here. The line coming from the right is the 3/0, a considerably more narrow kerf than the #3 I’m using coming in from the left just to get the piece down to manageable size.

It started off well enough. I used a single blade for the first 20 minutes when it finally snapped, though once I got the new one in, I realized that the one that had just snapped was dull anyway. Anytime I can use a blade to dullness, it’s a victory.

I cut several pieces, some with piercings, and then I must’ve either had sawing or attention fatigue, because suddenly, I was breaking blades like nobody’s business. It doesn’t take much to break these 3/0s—just a little twist of the saw, and it’s all over. That seemed to be my problem; I was probably rushing, so I decided I was done for the day. Well, that, and I’d superglued my fingers together once already, which seemed like enough for one day.  I’m all about the Zen inlay these days. This is how far I got.

The whole nose/mouth area of the dog is in ebony, and I had originally done them as separate pieces, but I may do it all as one and do some engraving/painting of detail. I have my options glued up, anyway. I started sawing the ebony, but broke one piece while I was at it. I’ve glued it (see the above re: gluing fingers together), though I don’t know how successfully. Of all the woods I’ve used at this thickness, the ebony is most likely to break along the grain. It also seems twice as dusty as any of the other woods. The cleanest sawing was the bit of figured maple Athena sent me. That was sweet.  Thanks, Ath!

I had such big plans for sawing today.  The stuff has been glued and waiting for 2 weeks.  I went outside.  I put up my new paper towel holder (for those occasions when I don’t wipe whatever it is right onto my apron), turned on my tunes, and commenced to sawing. Broke 4 blades in 20 minutes, and my sawing looked like hell.  Glued up a replacement pattern, turned off my tunes, and decided that I was clearly not meant to saw today.  Will be retiring to the back patio, catalogues in hand, to order light gear for my visor and an extra magnifying plate, maybe a small bandsaw, and perhaps Christmas gifts.  As you were.

 No sawing this past weekend after all, but my shell and stone from Rob’s Bits (on eBay). I decided to try the carnelian because it was inexpensive, interesting, and already of proper thickness for inlay.  Now we’ll see if my saw will cut it.  But the real surprise of the day was the paua.

It wasn’t cheap, I admit, but it wasn’t terrible for the size and thickness (which is totally as advertised and consistent), and the appearance is just absolutely gorgeous.  This is the "bad" side.  Ha!

And here’s the flip side of those same pieces:

It was so gorgeous that I decided I needed all he had, so I went to eBay and bought him out, at least for the moment.  Fortunately, he does "buy it now" on almost all his stuff, which I like.  I had bid on one of his auctions and lost, so the next time I just bought them outright.  I will keep an eye on his store; paua isn’t going to last forever, and these pieces are incredibly beautiful, as well as sizeable.  I told Athena I wasn’t going to hoard shell, but I have a weakness for paua, despite all its holey, sandy, sawblade-busting frustration.  It’s just so delicious.

I took a week or so off between the fish project and project #11.  The nice thing about not putting any pressure on yourself is that there’s no pressure.  Of course, that means it takes forever to do a project, but I cannot see myself quitting my day job anytime soon, so I may as well take ‘er easy and enjoy the ride.  I was talking to my friend Stephen about my crisis of inlay faith a month or so ago, and he said that when you first start anything, you go from zero knowledge to competent in a fairly quick amount of time, but the learning curve isn’t quite so steep thereafter.  To learn something new doesn’t take long; to become an expert takes a lifetime. 

He’s wise, my friend.  It was just what I needed to hear and remember.

So my goal for this weekend was merely to get the zillion pieces of pattern glued to shell.  I hadn’t really thought through what I was going to use until I sat down with it.  I’d had in mind that it would all be shell, a majority of it gold and black MOP.  But the pieces are large, and shell didn’t seem right for some of it–too slick–and then I remembered I had a lot of wood available that would solve both my problems.  So this will be mixed media.  I’ve used shell and I’ve used wood, but never both together, so this should be interesting, but of all the designs I tried, this might actually the best one for just such an experiment.  You can see a little hint of the original that inspired my design.  It will be funky, if it isn’t a failure.  But if it turns out, I’ll be tickled.

I did get everything glued AND my bench cleaned off so everything’s ready for sawing if I decide to get that ambitious tomorrow.  I’ll be sawing for several weekends, I think; this has a lot of pieces and several piercings required.

I have my little fishy on my desk at work, and a coworker noticed it when she stopped in to talk to me the other day, so I showed her the others I had and told her a little bit about the process.  She was interested and complimentary, and I was gratified.  It’s nice to talk to people who don’t see every mistake you do.  Right Ath?