Autumn Leaves

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Dan26

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A while ago, Jeff Powell wrote an article on incorporating scroll work in pens. I tried this once before but my casting was lousy. I decided to try again. I'm still not totally happy with it, but thought I'd share some of the things I learned from this try.

Smaller leaves look much better than the larger ones. The larger leaves show more edges and makes the leaves look odd, a little elongated. Next time, smaller leaves.

I only had four air bubbles to deal with which is not as bad as I thought. But, I didn't spend enough time getting the voids cleaned and ended up with some sawdust in the holes. Next time I'm going to try rigging up some sort of vibrator. Maybe that will get those bubbles to rise out. I think I'll use more tinting next time also. I like the depth, but wanted it a little darker.

I also got some sawdust from the padauk into the osage orange and it shows up. I'll make sure the leaves are cleaned out also.

I thought the leaves would be a pain to cut out, but Jeff did a great job explaining his process and it was surprisingly easy.

The pen has 18 leaves of maple, osage orange, padauk, and walnut.

Comments/suggestions welcome.
 

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OKLAHOMAN

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Dan, looks great from here, the original "Autumn Leaves" lives in my collection as I was honored to have Jeff ask me to turn it and take the photos as it was turned for the magazine, the pen then went to the magazine for the professional photos and Jeff then sent it to me.
Yours looks great.
 

Dan26

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Thanks.

Richard, his article was in one of the scroll saw magazines. I don't have it handy, but I can probably dig it up if you want.

Roy, that is great that you have one of Jeff's pens. I knew he did scroll saw work for years but didn't know he did pens until I saw him on this site. For me he has opened another door of ideas. That's what I love about this site and some of the others I visit - great people with great minds.
 

workinforwood

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That pen looks really great to me Dan. I like your leaf designs, it's great to see you went more on theory than just a flat out design copy. I like the backdrop colors too, they look great. That one leaf on the bottom in red is rather large, you got that right. You have to try and skinny the leaves because when you turn them they widen out like you said. I draw them and then load them into microsoft image composer. It's a really neat program that just comes with windows I guess, because I never put it there on my computer. With that program I can take a picture and squash it sideways only, which makes it look a little off kilter sometimes, but that's how I will cut it out and once it turns on the lathe it stretches itself back out and ends up looking normal again.

Did you use PR or Alumilite? With alumilite there should be no bubbles because you would use pressure and any air that might get trapped should get squashed right into the wood fibers. With plastic leaves instead of wood ones, it seems impossible to eliminate every possible air pocket though because even with pressure you can only squeeze a bubble so small and it can't get pressed into a piece of wood so it is inevitable to exist somewhere on the blank. My only thought on that would be to use a vacuum instead but you can't vacuum alumilite really.

Anyhow..the article is also in pdf format on my website. It is a publishers copyright, so you can use the techniques no problem, and you can make yourself a few leaf pens and even sell them at a show, but can't make them to sell like a production run is all. But..just the whole idea and practice of it opens the door as you say to many other designs that would then be totally your own! That's should be a persons goal anyhow, to mimic for understanding and then expand it into their own ideas.

I really appreciate seeing what you've done here Dan. Few people had the guts to even attempt it, as it just looks intimidating, but really it's pretty simple, just time consuming. I look forward to seeing what you come up with in the future, it should be a whole lot of fun to watch!
 
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Dan26

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Thanks again everyone.

Ernie, I used a #1 blade. I think I sent you some of those.

Jeff, I really appreciate the feedback. I had three leaves that were stretched (can only see one in the picture) and learned a lot about perspective on a cylinder. I may have to try the Microsoft Image Composer. I used PR which I usually like but I tried some stuff from Hobby Lobby that you mix 50/50 and don't like it so much. I may have to try some Alumilite. I expected the bubbles but kick myself for not spending the time cleaning them later. Just another lesson learned.
 
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