Fiddly Details

To follow up with the topic of my last post. I'm working on the landscape background of the Anthurium panel, specifically on the small view of hill that shows through the dividing hollow on the tip of one leaf. That also makes it a captive piece, so it has to be dropped in from above rather than sliding in sideways. It's fairly small, about .5 x .25 inches. With pieces this small, a score that causes an undercut when the piece is cracked off will completely ruin the piece. So cuts have to be made a bit wide, which means more grinding to shape. This is more accurate, but more work.

This comes with it's own problems. To fold the piece on the grinder, your fingers have to be closer to the bit. If I don't keep my nails short enough, there's an increased risk of my finger bumping the bit. This has happened to me several times, and it's emotionally jarring, but I don't think there's much chance of real injury. You should judge for yourself about this, since I'm definitely not saying this is safe. So far, I've hardly broken a nail.

Another thing is that your fingers cast shadows over the work. A swing lamp right over the grinder may be helpful, , but keep in mind that grinders throw off water. The spray is normally horizontal, but since water and electricity really don't get along, this is something else to be careful of.

Another problem is that your fingertips are very likely to rub off the line drawn of the piece. Even when I mark a dark piece with acrylic paint instead of a marker, this still happens. So I constantly have to ask myself if the line is too obscured to use, and if so I have to stop grinding, clean off and dry the piece, and then remark it. Since my method involves templates that hold up over repeated use, this works out well.

But it is work. Fiddly pieces are time consuming, hard to work with, easy to mess up, and just generally a pain in the ass. Avoid them as much as possible. But if they are necessary for a good design, do a good job on them. Knowing the difficulties and setting up your shop to deal with them accordingly will make a big difference in the quality of the finished panel.