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| Welcome to the World of Barnwood
Intarsia, by P.A. Barney I hope you will enjoy these projects as much as I did the first time I built each one. Let me give you some peace of mind right from the start . . ."you are not building a piano". Just build and shape each piece to be visually pleasing to yourself. The more Intarsia projects you do, the more realistic your work will begin to look. Following are some of my best tips for creating a unique piece of wood art, that you will get a lot of satisfaction from. #1. Use something to create a template from the original pattern. I have found that .010 acetate works well and is an inexpensive way to produce a template. Cut out the template with an exacto knife. (If you miss a cut by a little bit don't tell anyone, they won't know.) You can purchase acetate from a blueprint or art supply store. Sanford's sharpie fine or ultra fine works best for tracing on acetate. When tracing your template onto wood, use a fine line ball-point pen. #2. I prefer to use western red cedar, aromatic cedar and white pine, because they are soft to work with. They also allow for a good contrast in color selection. Barnwood intarsia can be shaped to look more like a carving than a flat wall hanging. That's why I start all my work at an inch and a half thick. This allows you to put as much dimension, to your piece, as your taste and patience desires. #3. Mount everything on quarter inch plywood, then cut the entire project out as one piece. Glue pieces on the bottom, as well as on the sides of connecting pieces. Larger projects can be mounted on 3/8" or 1/2" plywood preferably cabinet grade. #4. Finish with either high gloss or a low sheen finish (my high gloss gets a good response) , this choice is your own. I apply lacquer sealer with two coats of high gloss lacquer. #5. Take some time, have fun and I think you will enjoy these ideas. Thank you, Barney Following are some favorite links to Woodworking Sites:
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