I just completed one of the most mentally stimulating woodworking projects I have ever done or imagined I would do creating some custom modeled appliqués for a client. This was a new construction project, but the resultant home could have been built a couple hundred years ago, at least in style...it's much larger than all but the biggest estates from Revolutionary times. To the back of the home, there's an impressive Magnolia tree that is a "property feature". That presented the theme that the client had me work forward from for the requested appliqués that embellish a fireplace as well as the corner blocks in the ceiling and around the windows and doors for this particular room. And what a room it is...a library/office/study completely clad in black walnut that was milled on the property by Hearne and then used for all the interior doors as well as the space in question. The client accordingly provided the material I used for my contribution to the project. As I noted in my original thread in GW&PT a few weeks ago, my cousin (my actual cousin's son) did the doors for this project and he made the referral for me to do this artistic work. He did an amazing job on the doors and I'll show a few photos of those after I 'splain my own work.
For starters...this is the outside of the home which is getting final inspections in preparation for them moving in next week.
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And this is the magnolia tree just outside the room I was contributing to...
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The appliqués for the ceiling and windows were cut using slightly modified stock art that Vectric provides with their Aspire software...no surprise, it's a magnolia bloom. Nothing hugely special here, but they really turned out beautifully in the walnut material and I did the client a favor by putting his finish on them while I was babysitting the machine cutting other things. The client wanted to install these himself, so here are two photos that at least show how the ceiling and door/window appliqués will look once he does that.
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The fireplace appliqués were a whole 'nuther story relative to complexity and creativity...and a really "great" way to jump right into the fire with Aspire and modeling. It was both a very intense learning experience and a total pleasure to produce. I don't mind for one moment that I spent considerably more time on this part of the project than I originally anticipated. Based on the various sketches that the clients (husband and wife team...and she's "the boss"), we came up with the form they wanted to visually enhance the two sides of the fireplace and carry through the magnolia imagery.
Using Aspire, I created three "base" components to create the fireplace appliqués; the stem/trunk, a cluster of magnolia leaves and a cluster of magnolia leaves with a bloom. The stem and leaf clusters were created from graphics and photos, respectively, I found "out there" and the leaf cluster with the bloom was created from the first leaf-only element combined with "just" the center bloom from the stock graphic mentioned up above. These were then combined into the greater graphical element within the software with adjustments to size, orientation and thickness to build a multi-dimensional piece that could be cut as one element in the material on the CNC.
Before I went further with things like texture, "defects" and other things, I made a test cut which was, um...instructional. Despite it taking nearly a day to produce, it clearly showed me what I needed to adjust and change from a physical size standpoint to insure that the "real" piece could be cut out and stay in one piece prior to installation. I made those adjustments in the design and then proceeded to do all the detail modeling to bring the leaves, blooms and stem "to life", at least in a reasonable way. Being a first time for all of this, I committed another day to cutting a second sample just to be sure I got it right before putting the good stuff on the machine bed. That worked out and I cut the left side first; mirrored it and then cut the right side on a subsequent day. I had a few small areas of vertical height inaccuracy, likely from wood movement, but those were easy to clean up with some small, sharp gouges and sanding. Here are a few photos during the production of these elements...
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Because I have a limit of just over 48" for cutting, the top leaf/bloom element for each side had to be cut separately. Here's how they fit together
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And here's the completed left side fireplace appliqué ready for installation
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The finish the client chose for the (whole) room is a Zar oil based high-solids clear varnish and I have to say it was perfect for these appliqués in that it minimized the sanding work on the edges. The first of two coats really filled in the scratches and the second provided a very smooth edge.
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Originally Posted by Mike Ontko
