WHAT IT TAKES
TIME: 1/2 day
SKILL LEVEL: Beginner
Surprise your friends and family this season with easy-to-make photo sculptures. Your favorite folks will “pop” from your photos when you use this easy technique.
Here’s how: Apply photo mount adhesive to pieces of 1/4-in. hardwood plywood, firmly press on the photos to be sculpted, then cut out the figures with a scroll saw. Make some wood bases from scrap wood and glue on the sculptured photos with cyanoacrylate glue. This glue will tightly bond the sculpture’s bottom edge to the base, so you won’t need to fiddle with notches or screws.
Hints for great-looking sculptures:
■ Use a sharp No. 2 or No. 4 “skip tooth” blade.
■ Change blades when the sawn “paper edge” appears slightly ragged.
■ Select a medium or high speed and feed the work at a slow rate, pressing the wood firmly on the table as you saw.
■ When choosing photos to sculpt, look for clearly outlined subjects so it’s easy to follow the cutting line. Hair or clothing that blends into the background is difficult to cut.