Apple Blossom

Hi all,

I spent much of this week finishing off another box. This one was cut from a piece of mahogany and features scroll sawing on the ends.

And on the front and back.

Care was taken when cutting out each petal because the design I came up with needed only a thin piece of wood between each petal. The total number of petals to be cut out was 60 and I'm afraid that my concentration began to wain as I approached the end and I got a kick back. This incident broke the piece of wood that separated too petals. I swore a little when it happened, but it could have been worse, at least I didn't cut a finger off.

Kick backs are quite common when using a scroll saw and this is especially so when using reverse blades. Because the teeth at the bottom of the blade point upwards it means that the wood can be lifted by the blade and, if it isn't being held firmly enough, the wood bounces about on the table in an alarming manner. For this reason it is often referred to as table slap. To prevent table slap, all scroll saws are fitted with a piece of metal to hold the wood in place. The only trouble is it gets in the way so most scroll sawers, including me, end up ditching it.

Anyway, I was making the box for my own use so it didn't matter as much as it would if I was intending to selling it. This box was to be a prototype for my foray into inlay work using polymer clay.

The design for the lid of the box was cut out in much the same way as the sides and ends and the holes underneath were covered with a piece of 3mm ply wood. This was glued into place and clamped to make sure it was a tight seal. When it was dry I mixed up some polymer clay and pressed it into the holes in the wood with a craft knife.

For the branches I used white, translucent and a very small  amount of black clay. While for the flowers I used white, translucent, and pink. The make of clay used was sculpey premo. Once the holes had been filled with clay I baked the lid for 30 minutes following the instructions on the packet.
Here is the finished lid.

When it came out of the oven I was surprised to find that the clay had raised itself a little, but this was soon rendered flush by giving it a couple of seconds on my belt sander. I then finished the lid and the rest of the box with a wax polish.

All in all, I think my first attempt at a proper inlay was a a success. With hindsight I would have not made the flowers quite so pink and I would have mixed a little brown in the colour used for the branches instead of black.

In my next post I will show you a couple of boxes that I have made that have fallen to the heat of my pyrography iron. But for now I must get back to the packing. We will be moving house in a couple of weeks and a lot needs to be done.