Halloween Luminaries

Here's a great idea by TLT on the BT3Central.com forums. Rather than cutting pumpkins this year, he decided to take a few of the free pumpkin carving patterns available on the internet and use them as patterns to make his own luminaries. He used corner blocks with dadoes cut to hold the plywood panels, which really dresses up the project. However, you can easily glue the corner blocks to the inside instead. You can read the details of the thread here. Registration is required to see pictures, but it's easy and free. So check it out. And to get you started, I listed some of my favorite pumpkin pattern sites below.

• Zombie Pumpkins
• Pumpkin Lady
• Pumpkin Masters
• Hershey's
• SpookMaster
• Pumpkin Glow
• JP's Jammin' Pumpkins
• HP
• DLTK
• Cyberhaunt
• Jack-O-Lantern

Intarsia MSN Group

One of the great things about the internet, is the number of specialized communities that are there to help. If you get stuck, post a question and before long you'll have all kinds of advice from the resident experts.

Intarsia is an MSN group of fellow intarsia artists. They are a very friendly group that offers support, tips, and advice to help develop your skills. Along with the normal message boards, they have galleries of member's work broken down by subject and artist. I really enjoyed browsing through this section. It is such a great source of inspiration! Each month, they post the Pattern Of The Month. This pattern is a free, member created, pattern that is available to all members of the Intarsia group. Application is easy, just tell them a little about yourself and you'll receive confirmation in no time. So jump on in, make a few new friends, and share your sawdust stories!

Scrolling Games

My other hobby is playing board games. I love 'em! I have about 150 board games in my collection and its constantly growing. So I don't have to tell you how excited I was to hear the latest issue of SSW&C has plans for a compound cut checker board set designed by Sue Mey. I'm anxiously awaiting my issue to show up. The pictures look stunning and I can't wait to read more about it.

Interesting enough, there has been a few threads on SSW&C forums about compound cut chess pieces. Barefoot1 (Thomas) has created a thread in the Works In Progress section to log his progress as he constructs a Notre Dame chess set for his son. Each piece is compound cut with the scroll saw and beautifully detailed. He also goes into construction of the board/case that will certainly match the beauty of his chess pieces. His work is remarkable. I can't wait to see the finished product.

The Notre Dame Chess Set was designed by Azbison (Jim Kape). He's been busy making a lot of prototype chess pieces and posting the results in the forums. You can check out some of his prototypes (thread 1, thread 2). He also has a beautiful chess set he constructed. Take a look.

If you are interested in obtaining a copy of the Notre Dame Chess Set, Jim is making the pattern available for $10. He also has other patterns he's been working on, so you might see what else he has to offer. You can email Jim at azbison[at]yahoo.com, to find out more information.

You also might want to check out Diana Thompson's, Wooden Chess Sets You Can Make: 9 Complete Designs for the Scroll Saw. I haven't read the book, yet. But the designs look very nice and might be a good option for those who are new to compound cutting.

Finishing Trivets

Finishing trivets is a bit tricky. You are putting hot plates on the wood and you don't want to discolor or melt the finish. There is a great thread on Absolutely Free Scroll Saw Patterns about finishing trivets. People discuss their personal preferences about finishing trivets as well as providing a few product links. Definitely worth checking out if a trivet design is in your future.

Dallas Ft. Worth Scrollers Patterns

Spring is right around the corner. Birds are starting to make a show. What better way to celebrate the upcoming spring season than with our fined feathered friends? The Dallas Ft. Worth Scrollers has provided this great pattern designed by Sylvia. They have a number of other free patterns available too that should keep you busy. While you are there, check out their website. They have a gallery section which is fun to look through. If you live in the Dallas Ft. Worth area, stop by one of their meetings to exchange ideas, tips and enjoy good old fashion community!

Scroll Saw Woodworking & Crafts Community

Communities are a great way to meet people who share the same interest. They offer support, advice, tips and encouragement. My favorite online community is hosted by Scroll Saw Woodworking & Crafts magazine. What a great group of people. You won't find much for free patterns, but you will find a wealth of information and camaraderie. If you have any question regarding scroll sawing, this group has your answer.

The forum is set up into categories. They have the General Scroll Saw section to talk about anything related to scroll sawing. New scrollers should check out Beginner's Scroll Saw. If you have a question regarding a specific kind of scroll saw related issue, they have special sections for those too. The Bragging Section is fun to browse other's latest works and get a little inspiration. One really neat area that they just added is Works In Progress. Here you'll find photos and comments on projects as the artist works their way to completion.

The message boards are free to browse and read. Membership is required to post messages. However, membership is free and instantaneous. Just a note. New member's messages are moderated before they become visible to the public. They do this to avoid abuse and spam. Messages are approved rather quickly, though. And it only takes a few posts before the moderators lift the moderation function from your account.

So check out this great community. Don't be afraid to post your questions, no matter how dumb you think your question is. Everybody there is super friendly and eager to help. See you on the boards!

Williy's Woodcrafting

Looking for more inspiration? Look no further than WillysWoodcrafting online gallery. William's gallery has hundreds of pictures of his work. From fretwork clocks, portraits, 3d work to bandsaw boxes and pen turnings. He does it all from his home in Wyndell, Canada. He is an active member of several online communities as well as the admin for the Woodworking Friends online community. He's always willing to share his experience and tips for new woodcrafters. So check out his gallery. Not only does he do fantastic work, it will certainly inspire you to create some sawdust of your own.

Train Name

Awhile back, I wrote about Shop of Arpop and the patterns he has to offer. Here's another one of his pattern sets. He offers a train alphabet. This would be great for a little boy's room. Each letter and number is presented in a JPG format so you can easily scale them to the size you need. Check it out.

One note about Shop of Arpop. It looks like he moved his free scroll saw patterns to a ProBoards forum. To access these, you need to become a member. Signup is free, but it looks as if he must activate your account before you are allowed to look through his patterns and participate in the discussions. My approval was pretty quick. His new page is located here. At the time of this writing, the train alphabet is located here. But he may move those over to the forum in the future.

Absolutely Free Scroll Saw Patterns

In my last post, I mentioned Absolutely Free Scroll Saw Patterns. AFSSP is an online community with over 3200 members. Here, you can get advice from other members and exchange ideas and patterns. One really neat thing they do is have a monthly design competition. They choose a subject and members submit their designs. The winners receive a hardy pat on the back and a few bragging rites. But the true reward is seeing how different artists interpret the monthly theme.

But a community wouldn't be a community without discussion. And AFSSP has plenty of that. The website is broken into several different sections. The General area is for general discussion about scroll sawing. You'll often see people displaying their new cuttings, asking for advice, or sharing the latest happening at the recent craft show. Toolish Thoughts is a great place to get some advice and reviews for that next tool for your shop. Ever think about selling your work, but don't know where to start? They'll help you in the Business Side. Seasoned veterans of craft fairs, online sellers, and casual sellers offer their advice in this neat little section.

Sure, that's all well and good. But what about free patterns? Well, my friend, you hit the mother load. They have nearly 4,000 patterns developed by scrollers for scrollers. The most recent patterns are posted in Hot Off The Press with the older patterns categorized in the Archives. You can also request a custom pattern in the Request Pattern section. Thousands of patterns, right at your fingertips. There isn't enough time in the day...errr...week...errr...year to cut all of these patterns. So, what more can you ask?

AFSSP does require a membership to access all of their goodies. But the membership is free and easy to get! So what is there to lose? Join now and become apart of a really great community.