10/02/2008
Travis of Scrollsaw Goodies wrote an article that brought up cork as a different material to try when scrolling in an article he posted September 30th 2008 entitled Real Fez. It just so happens that the other day I was able to get my hands on some cork flooring from a friend of mine whom is a carpet layer/floor installer. He had some left over pieces of a cork floor and asked me if I wish to try it in my scrolling work. Of course I wanted to and I did.
So I picked out a relatively easy project to cut, I also double stacked it with a piece of Batic Birch plywood I had, as I had no idea what the back may look like when I was done with cutting it out. I assumed that being cork and all, the piece would just fall apart in the back. The back has another small thin piece of cork though a complete variation from the front/top of this piece.
I do not consider it done , as I made the perimeter the size of another macrame ring I have , like I used in my Indian Chief Intarsia Tutorial, which I wrapped in macrame jute. I have plans on placing these projects to fit inside this ring and make them into a wind chime of sorts or wall hangings with beads and feathers.
I would like to add that this did not tear up my blades as I thought it might. I also did not need to double stack cut this for fear of tear-out, (as I checked later and there was no problem with that) I used Olson's
# 2, # 5 and # 7 reverse tooth blades on this project. They all worked well. I also plan on using more of this material as I find it fascinating, and can think of a lot of intarsia pieces this would be good for such as mountains, or rocks, etc.
