Creating a Log Picture Book
By Roy Ellery
People can’t resist picking up my log books and looking through them. Sometimes I’ll write a story to accompany the scenes, but often I’ll just let the images tell a unique story to each viewer.
After purchasing a new scroll saw, I needed to create something to test the saw’s capabilities. I had a jacaranda log lying around and decided to slice it on the band saw. After cutting some designs on each slice with the scroll saw, I reformed the log. The first log was pinned at the corner and you had to rotate the pages like a fan. Later, I realized there was no reason why I couldn’t bind one edge like a book.
My log books usually feature little gnomes that live inside trees. For this project, I use a 5″-diameter jacaranda log cut to about 5″ long. Jacaranda is native to my area, but any wood with a uniform light color and good bark retention, such as basswood, will work.
Scroll down to page through and see the clever scenes in this book.
The full step-by-step article originally appeared in Woodcarving Illustrated Summer 2012 (Issue 59).
Get the Latest Issue
For more articles like this, subscribe to Woodcarving Illustrated magazine.
Plus! Get digital mini magazines in your e-mail between printed issues.
