There's no fun like that you get from using tools. Before Christmas I bought myself a scroll saw to beguile the snows and let me make things without having to brave the freezing shed. This is one of the resulting efforts: an oak leaf mobile. And yes, they do look like autumn leaves, you're right.
They're great to do, though, not least becasue I have a mountain of scrap and off-cuts which are ideal for scroll sawing.
Here's a couple of trivets.
And here's a mat thingy for a plant, maybe.
And here's the machine itself, raring to go, mean, moody and very dusty.
My daughter gave me a great tip about finishing the pieces. Frying them in hot linseed oil works a treat, and once cool there is no residue on the wood. The oil brings out the colour and the grain.
The trouble is that scroll saw enthusiasts seem to camp on the borders of fussiness, ready to slip over a a moment's notice, and so many designs are on the garden gnome continuum. And I guess that's fair enough, as the saw is really good at doing fancy stuff that nothing else can really manage.
Half way through cutting a design there is the sudden sinking feeling: does this one belong with garden gnomes ?
The leaves seem quite tasteful in the scheme of things.
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