I guess some people may claim this is a segmentation project and not a true intarsia project. As I understand, segmentation is cutting the same piece of wood into smaller pieces that are the fit together, usually after painting them or something. Intarsia uses different wood species to accomplish the color and pattern of the image. Whatever, it was a lot of fun!!
We are expecting our first grandchild in May and this is for his nursery! I found the picture on the Internet and made a pattern from it. I just printed out the picture, got some tracing paper and traced over the lines I wanted to cut and then scanned the tracing paper into a jpg file that I could fix up.
After printing out the pattern I applied it to a piece of 3/4 inch pine and cut out the pieces. The first step was to decide how to shape the pieces. On the leaf I used the saw to cut it down to 1/4 inch thick so it sits way back. I then used a belt sander to trim off 1/8 inch on the body and the outside of the ears. The inside of the ears I trimmed off 1/4 inch.
Now that the depth looked good I used a rotary tool with a 1/2 inch sanding band to round off all the edges. It took on a really great look at that point. I was impressed that the feet look like they sit back a bit from the dirt/rock he is standing on but actually they are the same depth. The rounding gives that illusion. I drilled 3/8 inch holes for the eyes and used the sander to round off the end of a 3/8 inch dowel. I cut off about 1/4 inch after rounding it and it fit nicely in the holes I had drilled.
Next step was painting. I just used regular acrylic paint. The toes and eyes are black. The inside of the ears are black with a little white mixed in. I used regular gray for the head, body, feet, and ears and a brown/tan for the dirt. The leaf is a light green and I used a toothpick and dark green to make the lines.
Next I used Loctite gel super glue to glue all the pieces together. I then used a length of red oak trim to make the frame. Fitting the frame around the elephant was a little difficult to make fit nicely. Last step was to take a piece of 1/8 inch hardwood and glue everything to it. First I used Mod Podge to mount a piece of scrapbook paper. Then I glued on the elephant which is a whole piece at this time and then glued the frame around it. I used a combination of Loctite and wood glue to glue to the backer board. I finished it off with a few coats of Matte Spray Finish.
There are a few things I will do differently next time. I am currently working on a giraffe to go with it. The picture isn't exactly square. It is close but not quite. Next time I will start by gluing the frame on first. Then I know the frame will be square. Then I will glue things together within the frame and on the backer board so they fit nicely. I didn't see much advantage to gluing the whole thing up first before applying it to the backer board even though that is how the books say to do it.
I might do a combination of those things. I might glue things together within the frame but not to the backer board. Then I know it will fit and if need be I can sand the back of the whole thing to make it lay a little flatter against the backer board when I glue it down.
