A "Challenging" Break This Afternoon

I took a break from the lighthouse project to participate in an intarsia/segmentation challenge posted by one of the group members of the intarsia/segmentation discussion board I belong to. Basically, the challenge is for everyone to take the same pattern and make the piece. How different people interpret the same pattern is the most enjoyable outcome. This particular challenge is a toucan.

Of the pieces already completed, most everyone else has chosen the segmentation-paint approach. Segmentation differs from intarsia in that a segmentation piece is cut apart (segmented) from one piece of wood then each piece is stained or painted individually. Intarsia is cut from different kinds of wood—each a different color. No stains or paints are used in most intarsia. Some intarsia artists choose to add stain from time to time to achieve colors that are not found in natural wood.

I have nothing against segmentation—it is an art form in itself. The shaping is the same, whether segmentation or intarsia. It just doesn’t appeal to me as an artist. The fit is always flawless (since it is all cut from the same piece of wood) and the colors are whatever stain or paint you use. I like the challenge of fitting different cuts together and relying on natural wood colors for my palette. I also think that orienting the grain in different directions gives the piece more appeal. Of course, most of my intarsia pieces have elements of segmentation in them. When the color and grain direction of adjoining pieces are the same, I cut them from one piece of wood and segment them before shaping.

I chose to remain true to my artistic vision and remain in the “no stain/no paint” zone for my toucan. This meant a trade off, knowing that I could never get the bright blue eyelid others achieved. I got as close as nature would allow by using blue pine but it turned out more gray than blue—oh well, call it “artistic interpretation” ;). The left side of the walnut had a light streak in it that I didn’t realize was there until I started shaping. I decided it wasn’t worth re-cutting since this project was just for fun—more artistic interpretation :).

I also decided to use only wood scrap I had on hand. If I had my pick of any wood, I would have used wenge or ebony for the body and tail feathers, both kinds of wood are much darker and closer to the black color called for. As it turned out, I had just a small piece of wenge on hand and no ebony. So the wenge went into making the pupil of the eye (with an aspen highlight) and the body became walnut. The feet, which I would have made out of walnut (if I had wenge for the body) ended up being out of mahogany. I also would have used padauk for the beak, instead of the satinwood. The yellow around the eye is satinwood and the white is aspen.

If I were making this for someone else, I would probably re-cut a few of the pieces, but my goal was to knock it out this afternoon while I had a day off. It was fun to take a break from my big lighthouse project. Now I’m ready to get back to it.