Jesus

I posted so many photo of this project for a reason. I'm hoping readers can find one photo that stands out enough to begin to show this project as well as if you came to my shop to see it. It is one of those projects that if you think the photos look good, you should see the real thing.

This project was quite a challenge on several levels. For one thing, it is huge. Not counting the frame, the cutting itself is twenty inches wide and twenty seven inches tall. It is by far the largest portrait style cutting I have ever attempted. The size created another challenge because all I have is a sixteen inch scroll saw. If it weren't for spiral blades, it would have been impossible for me to complete this cutting.

Another challenge was the delicateness of this cutting. If you look at the photos, the bottom three quarters of Jesus's face is just hanging there in the borders with nothing supporting it. In order to remove that large mass of material between his face and neck, I had to keep using masking tape to hold the cutout area in place as I continued cutting. It scared me a few times. I just new I had broke it, ruining many hours of cutting if I had done so. I breathed a huge sigh of relief when I finally had all three that I stack cut in frames so I could rest assured that I would now not destroy them on accident.

Then finally, another challenge wasn't the cutting itself. It was the fact that this is the first time I've ever built such large picture frames. I learned very quickly while doing so that the miters for large frames have to be absolutely perfect or any mistakes will stick out like a sore thumb.

This pattern was designed by a man named Charles Dearing. He is one of the most talented designers I've ever had the pleasure of knowing. If you click on his name above, you can go to his Facebook page and see some of his other work or get to know a little about him. He is very talented and does do custom patterns if you contact him about it. He does his work for very reasonable prices as well. So if you're wanting a pattern that is a cut above a lot of the offerings out there today, consider contact Charles.
Speaking of his talent, I don't think it comes across so well in photos. I want you all to look closely at the eyes. The entire design is beautiful, but Charles caught something in these eyes that I have never seen. First, if you see it in person, the eyes seem to follow you if you changes the angle that you're viewing the portrait from. I have never seen that in a scroll saw cutting before. Also, for a portrait of Jesus, I have never seen anyone capture the sadness in his eyes so realistically. It's as if you can tell Jesus is on the verge of weeping although there are no tears to tell you that. You can just look at the eyes and feel the sadness.

I hope you all enjoy this one. Now that I have found such a talented designer that brings out the type of detail I like cutting, I hope to cut many more of his designs.