Intarsia Teddy

8/10/2019 Intarsia Teddy

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Mission Furniture

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SIGNATURE SERIES

INTARSIA PROJECTS by

Page 1 of 10DP-00248 Copyright Meredith Corporation 2003

Intarsia TeddyNo matter if youre a nov-ice at intarsia or a sea-soned pro, heres an eye-

catching project youllenjoy building, andone that any child willadore. Youll findfull-size patternsfor cutting out allof Teddys parts(including spacersfor raised parts).Each pat tern

piece has labelsthat identify the

wood color, grainorientation, and group-

ing for easier contour-ing of parts. Now, getready to put your pawsto work.


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SIGNATURE SERIESPage 2 of 10

" plywoodbacker

" hole" deep

"-diameter eye madeusing a plug cutter orwood dowel

" plywoodmuzzle spacer

" plywoodnose spacer

Picture hanger

1 EXPLODED VIEW


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For applying patterns, use a sprayadhesive, such as 3M Spray MountArtists Adhesive, that lets you eas-ily remove and reposition the paper.If patterns stay attached for severaldays, though, or you apply toomuch adhesive, they can becomedifficult to remove. Should this hap-pen, apply a little heat to the topof the paper with a hair dryer, asshown at right. This will soften theadhesive so you can peel off thepaper cleanly. Keep the heat lowto avoid burning. Later, remove theadhesive with a solvent.

Working with light-tackspray adhesives

SHOPTIP

For tight-fitting parts, scrollsaw right down the middle of the intarsiapattern lines.

A


Note:Youll need a selection of"-thick wood scraps of dark,medium-dark, medium, andlight tones. We used pine for thelight-toned wood and westernred cedar (which Judy prefersdue to its color variety) for allof the other tones.

First, cut outthe parts1 Start by making at least fivecopies of the full-size bear pat-tern on pages 6 and 7. Thebears parts are identified onthe pattern with uncircled let-ters indicating the wood tones.Look over a pattern to findareas where you can cut outgroups of adjacent parts thathave the same wood tones. Cut

apart the grouped and indi-vidual pattern pieces.2 For each pattern piece, alignthe arrow on the pattern with thegrain on your stock, and movethe pattern around until youfind the area with the best colorand grain figure for the piece.Adhere the patterns to the stockwith spray adhesive. See theShop Tip, above right.3 Scrollsaw the parts, as shown

in Photo A. (For tips to helpyou scrollsaw more accurately,seepage 7.) To form the open-ing in the muzzle for the nose,make a cut through the bottomof the muzzle into the nosearea, then remove the waste forthe nose.4 Drill a " hole " deepin each of the face pieces toreceive Teddys eyes, whereshown on the patterns. Then,using a " plug cutter, cut two

"-long plugs for the eyes.(We cut them from dark cedar.)Or, cut these pieces from a" walnut dowel. Set the eyesaside for now.


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Now, for thecontouring1 Group together parts with thesame circled letter. The parts inthese groups have a continuouscontour across them, so youllsave time by sanding them asgroups.

2 Using double-faced tape,adhere the groups of parts to a912" piece of " plywood, witheach groups pieces arranged asshown on the complete pattern.Leave a " clearance betweenthe groups; then cut them outby scrollsawing the plywoodto within " of the groupsperimeters.3 Referring to the Contouringguide, right, mark contourreference lines along the edges

of the grouped and nongroupedparts.Note:For best results, practicecontouring scrap pieces first toget used to the technique. If youdont feel comfortable doingthis, its perfectly fine to justgently round the top edges ofparts and leave their faces flat.4 Using 100-grit sandpaper,contour the parts as shown inPhoto B. We used a 3"-diam-

eter pneumatic drum sandermounted in a drill press, whichis ideal. (See the Buying Guideon page 5 for our source.) Butan oscillating spindle sander,drill-press drum sander, or discsander also would be suitable.Be careful not to sand com-pletely around the edges to theback surface, which will leavegaps between parts. We foundit easiest to start with the bearsfeet and work to its head.

5 After contouring the bearsface pieces, glue the "-longplugs into the " eyeholes.Then hand-sand the eyes, gentlyrounding their edges and leav-ing them approximately "proud of the face pieces.6 As your contouring progress-es, frequently place adjacentparts together and check for

Contouring Guide

Contour the inner ear pieceso it slopes toward the faceand angles slightly from topto bottom. Aim for a face-to-ear depth of about " at thetop to " at the bottom. Inner ear

Face

"

"

Belly tapered "below scarf

Right paw slopeddown about "into scarf

Scarf sloped backtoward face

Contour the top of Teddys belly to about " below the scarf. Slopethe scarf toward the face and the right paw down into the scarf.

Bellyrounded" belowfeet

Paw angledtoward face and hat

Bottom threescarf pieces sit" below belly.

Round the bellys bottom to about " below the feet. Angle theraised paw toward the face and hat. Sand the bottom scarf pieces tosit about " below the belly.


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the desired transition between them, as shown inPhoto C.7 When you have finished rough-sanding the parts,finish-sand their contoured surfaces by hand to150 grit, then 220 grit.8 Cut out the full-size muzzle and nose spacerpatterns from one of your photocopied patterns.Adhere the spacer patterns to a 23" piece of "-

thick plywood; then scrollsaw the pieces to shape.9 Remove the double-faced tape from all of thegrouped parts. Now assemble the bear on a 912"piece of " plywood, raising the muzzle and noseparts with the spacers, where shown on Drawing 1,and as shown in Photo D. Check the fit and transi-tion between all of the parts, and make final adjust-ments where necessary by sanding or trimming.10 When youre satisfied with the fit and look,trace around the perimeter of the bear with apencil. Carefully slide the bear off the plywoodbacker, keeping the pieces together. Cut the backerto shape, scrollsawing just inside the marked line.

Sand the edges smooth.

Glue the bear to the backer,and add the finish1 Spray-paint the back face and edge of the backerwith glossy black enamel paint.2 With the paint dry, carefully slide the bear ontothe unpainted side of the backer. Center the bearso theres an even overlap all around the backer.Now, glue each piece onto the backer using acouple of drops of yellow woodworking glue.3 Remove all of the dust. Then, apply three coats

of a clear finish, sanding to 400 grit and remov-ing the dust between coats. (We used Watcoaerosol satin lacquer.) Finally, attach a hanger tothe backer.

Buying GuideDrum sander and adapter.3"-diameter pneumatic drumsander no. 09M32, drill-pressadapter no. 14072. Woodcraft,call 800/225-1153, or go towww.woodcraft.com.

B

C

D

When contouring the parts, use light pressure andkeep them moving to prevent burning the wood.

Grouped partstaped to "

plywood

Pneumaticdrum sander

Check the transition between adjacent parts asyou contour them. Re-mark and continue sandingas necessary.

Install the muzzle spacer followed by the muzzle. Then insert thenose spacer and the nose into the muzzle opening.

Muzzlespacer

Nose

Muzzle

Nose spacer


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B

D

A

D

M M

MD

MD

MD

MD

MD

MD

MD

MD

MD

MD

MD

MD

ML

D DL

L

L

L

D

D

L

D

L

M

MD

" hole" deep

A B

C

F

H

G

E

E

F

F

BEAR FULL-SIZE PATTERN

H

H

G

G

E

C

C

D

" hole" deep

E


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MUZZLE SPACERFULL-SIZE PATTERN

" plywood NOSE SPACER

FULL-SIZE PATTERN

" plywood

Grain DirectionD......Dark wood toneMD...Medium-dark wood toneM......Medium wood toneL..... Light wood tone

KEY

.....Parts with the same letters are contoured as a group.

A

For intarsia projects to look their best, the parts needto fit together tightly. Besides sawing right down themiddle of the pattern lines, what else can you do toprevent gaps? These surefire pointers from Judy GaleRoberts and Jerry Booher could improve your resultsdramatically.

1 Use the right bladeFor scrollsawing softwoods and hardwoods up to 1" thick,Judy and Jerry recommend you use a no. 5 reverse skip-tooth blade (12 teeth-per-inch minimum), such as theone shown on Drawing 2. With its set of reverse teethat the bottom, the blade cuts on both the up and downstrokes, leaving a smooth finish and minimizing bottomsplintering. The blades quick cutting action also allowsyou to scrollsaw slower for better control. For cuttingwoods up to 1" thick, use a more aggressive no. 7 blade(10 teeth-per-inch minimum).2Square your table

After tensioning the blade in your scrollsaw, check thatthe table is square to it, as shown in Photo D. Adjust thetables tilt as necessary to square it.3Set the right speed for controlTo cut accurately, you need to set a speed that gives yougood control. As a general guideline, Jerry suggests set-ting the speed at 6070 percent of your saws maximumspeed. The optimum speed, though, will vary dependingon the density of the material. So, make test cuts in scrapfirst to find the right setting.4Plan before cuttingBefore you rush into cutting parts, plan how you can cutthem from larger pieces for safe handling. Aim for rough-

cutting parts or groups of parts into hand-size pieces, andshape and separate the small parts from the group first.5Check the bottom of partsfor splinteringEven when using the right blade, you can still get splinter-ing. Those splinters can lead to out-of-square workpieceedges by preventing your stock from lying flat on thetable. So, frequently check the bottom for splinters, andsand them off.

D

Cut a curve in 1"-thick scrap, and checkthe edge for square. The curve makes iteasy to see any light between the squareand the edge.

Reverse teeth at bottom ofblade provide clean cuts.

Skip-tooth gulletspeeds waste removal.

2 NO. 5 REVERSE

SKIP-TOOTH BLADE


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Wood Selection

Any type of wood will workfor intarsia projects. The mostimportant aspects of the woodyou choose are color and grainpatterns. You may choose touse walnut or red cedar for darkwood, maybe pecan for a medi-

um color, and maple or birch fora light shade.

Photo E shows eight pieces ofwood. Most of the wood I use,and most of the blocks shownhere, is western red cedar. Iprefer to use western red cedarbecause of the wide variety ofcolors and grain patterns pro-duced by the tree. There are twotypes of red cedar: Western redcedar, which comes in a wide

variety of colors, and red aro-matic cedar, which is mostly redwhite with some purple. Both areeasy to work and perfect for wallhanging projects that don't getthe abuse that furniture projectsdo. For the white color in myprojects, I use either white pine,basswood or aspen. The whitewood pictured here is basswood.Like western red cedar, bass-wood also has its variances andcan range in color from a verytan to an almost pure white. I use letter codes on the pat-terns to indicate the color of thewood to use in making theseIntarsia projects. Look closeIy atthe samples of wood in Photo Ethey will give you an idea of thedifferent shades of wood used inthe projects. From left to right, the first pieceof wood would be referred to witha W for white wood, the second,

L for a light shade of wood, thethird, M for a medium shade ofwood, and the fourth, ML for amedium light shade of wood.The first sample on the lower rowwould be labeled with a MD for amedium dark shade of wood, thesecond is another MD, the thirdis D for a dark shade of wood,and the final sample on the lower


row is also a D for yet a darker

shade or wood. We applied a clear finish to thelower half of each block to showyou what the wood will look likeonce a clear finish is applied.The wood becomes at least oneshade darker when a clear finishis applied. White wood, such asbasswood, pine or aspen, is theleast affected by the finish. In

addition to making the wood look

darker and richer in color, the fin-ish will also bring out the grain. Wood for intarsia projects canbe found at your local lumberyard. I buy my Western red cedarat several different lumber yardsso that I can find a variety ofcolors. Lumber yards sell cedarin a number of widths from 1 x 2"boards to 1 x 12" boards.

E

Wood comes in a wide variety of colors and grain patterns. Theseeight wood samples show the color of unfinished wood and the fin-

ished wood.

F

Though it is hard to find, red cedar sap wood can be used as white-

colored wood in place of the more common basswood, pine or aspen.


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G

Knots in wood often force the grain of the wood to form interest-

ing and unusual patterns that are beautiful when incorporated in toIntarsia projects.

H

Streaks of color going through pieces of wood are perfect for creat-

ing sunset and water.

I have found that the darkershades of cedar are harder tofind. I have better luck lookingthrough the cedar fence picketpile. Even the 1 x 4" sectionmay have more dark cedar thanthe 1 x 12" section. For thesesmaller Intarsia projects, the 1

x 6" fence pickets have amplewidth and provide an inexpen-sive wood to use.

Photo FSometimes with cedar, I am ableto find the sapwood, which isoften very white. On a living tree,the sap wood is located next tothe bark. Sap flows through thiswood and delivers nutrients tothe tree. At the lumberyard, youcan find sapwood on the out-

side edges of cedar boards. Thewhite color of sapwood is usuallylimited to about wide.

Photo GWhen choosing which boards tobuy, I look for color first, and thenI take a closer look to see whatthe grains are doing. One of themost intriguing parts of choosingwood for intarsia is finding notonly a color, but a grain patternthat can make a project come tolife. I rarely buy the "knot-free"lumber. So many times, you willfind really unusual grain patternsaround a knot. Because we areworking with many small parts,it is easy to work around theknots and other natural occur-rences in the wood. Sometimes,I even incorporate the knot intothe project; other times I discardit if the knot is too dark and tendsto draw too much attention away

from the main subject matter.

Photo HI also look for wood that may havesome streaks going through it.These pieces make great woodfor sunsets, water and even rosepetals.I also buy straight-grained lum-ber so that on each project I have

a balance of straight grains and

unusual grains. Too many exoticgrain patterns can get monoto-nous. I stash away many prizeboards that are waiting for justthe "right project." Sometimesthe wood will inspire the pat-tern. I now find myself studyingwood everywhere and enjoyingits natural beauty.

After making your wood selec-

tions, make sure the wood is dry.If you use wet wood for intarsiaprojects, the parts will shrink asthe wood dries, leaving gapsbetween the pieces.


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I first started doing intarsia with my father, artist Pat Dudley Roberts, in the late 1970s.He always had a shop of sorts where he created everything from sculptures to largepaintings for private collectors and commercial establishments. Our intarsia projectsat that time were large and roughly sanded with a low relief. I had fun mixing differentshades of wood, and then working with sanders to get a variety of effects. It was a verycreative environment; there were no woodworking rules to limit us. In fact, when Jerryfirst came to our shop, he looked at our bandsaws and was amazed we could cut any-thing that would fit anything.

Jerry Booher and I began working together in the mid-1980s. We scaled down the sizeof the finished pieces and began exhibiting them at arts and craft shows. I showed Jerryhow my father and I had made our wood murals. After studying the process, Jerry cameup with some ideas and different approaches to get, as he said, "better results." I was alittle reluctant to go along with him, after all, he was a newcomer to this and how couldhe come up with something better than my father and I. Finally I gave in and was glad I

did. The total appearance of the projects changed. Everything was nicely sanded, moreattention was paid to the small details.

After the first few arts and crafts shows, Jerry was inspired to find out if there was aname for this technique. He sent a letter along with photos to the National WoodcarversAssociation and asked them if they could shine any light on the subject. We got a letterback and to my surprise there was a name for this method of woodworking. We lookedin the Webster's Dictionary and there it was: Intarsia. I had mixed feelings: I was a littledisappointed because I thought we had come up with this style of woodworking, but gladthere was an official name. Indeed, our business changed quite a bit because of the name.

SIGNATURE SERIES

Page 10 of 10

Before you get startedWe want to urge you to developgood safety practices any time youare using any type of woodwork-ing machinery or hand tools, as wellas using good common sense whenusing finishes of any kind. Pleasemake safety glasses and hearing pro-tection standard procudure when usingany type of machinery. Be sure to readand follow the manufacturers recom-mendations for power tool safety, aswell as read and follow the safety rec-ommendations for the use of finishes(good ventilation and lots of it!).

Produced by Marlen Kemmet

Written by Owen DuvallProject design: Judy Gale Roberts

Graphic Design: Jamie Downing

Illustrations: Lorna Johnson; Roxanne LeMoine

Photographs: Marty Baldwin

Copyright Meredith Corporation 2003

The purchase of these plans does not transferany copyright or other ownership interest in theplans, the design, or the finished project to thebuyer. Buyer may neither reproduce the plansfor sale nor offer for sale any copies of thefinished project.


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