Scroll Saw Blog

Here’s some pictures of another person’s version of the Diana tray.  Cathy used some special beads that have some family significance for the beads in the central oval. She didn’t say, but I’m guessing it’s made from mahogany and lacewood.  The cutting is good–it can be difficult to get those mortise/tenon and box joints cut [...]

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This is the other Balacia Tray I made.  It’s solid cypress, both sides and bottoms, and has green aventurine chip beads.
The tray picture. This is the one going on the e-commerce page.

And a close up of the aventurine:

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I finished off the Balacia tray this morning, putting in the lapis lazuli chip beads.  The cypress twin got green aventurine chips, but it still needs the wires cut and sanded. Here’s a picture of the yellowheart tray:

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The scrollsaw did get some work today.  I made a pair of “Balacia” trays; one out of yellowheart/lacewood, the other cypress. I plan on putting malachite or lapis lazuli chips in the yellowheart version; haven’t decided about the cypress.
On the side is the cherry “Evealle” beaded woven box.  It’s finished; I did the final sanding [...]

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I finished up a pair of “Diana” beaded trays as well tonight.  I had threaded the beads yesterday, but didn’t have any cyanoacrylate glue so they didn’t get finished until today.  Jenny loves tanzanites, so it was an obvious candidate for one of the trays.
The tray itself is made from a cherry log we had [...]

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I got some more gemstone beads, this time chips.  Emerald and tanzanite chips are actually rather cheap, and I’d thought it would be neat to have real emeralds in a project.  Here is the “D” version tray with the emerald chips in the sides holes.  The center hole has red and green Swarovski crystal. Threading [...]

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Just sold my second tray tonight.  The person came over and picked it up, though I won’t get the money until monday. His wife’s birthday is tomorrow, and I haven’t had a chance to write up the invoice yet.
The tray is made of yellowheart (sides) and lacewood (bottom).  He picked out sodalite for the beads.  [...]

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I finished the latest model of beaded tray today, and in keeping with the sequence I named it “The Diana”. This is the most intricate fretwork that I’ve drawn, and it was a little tricky cutting the points without breaking anything off.  I know, you can use a zero-clearance insert, but I’ve found they tend [...]

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Why “D-Tray”? It’s the fourth one–A,B,C,…D!  So this one will have a name starting with the letter ‘D’.  Anyway, this is the latest design of a 4″ x 6″ fretwork tray with beads. This one has quite a bit more intricate fretwork, and it was a bit of a learning curve getting the sketched idea [...]

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Tonight I put together the first beaded tray with semi-precious gemstones in it. This is the second pattern I drew, reduced to 6″x3″ so it would fit the scrap of walnut I had. Also, this tray has a maple bottom. The maple was also scrap–I resawed the maple scrap and attempted a bookmatch [...]

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