I started off the project printing out an image of a black tip shark onto a transparency. (I placed it on a white sheet of paper for you to see the image).
Next, using my overhead projector and transparency, I traced the shark image onto the back of some wrapping paper and then cut the image out with scissors.
I lined up the boards that were cut from a pallet and glued them together with wood glue and held them snug with clamps.
TIP: Now if I had to do this all over again, I would find a thin board to use as a backing. Then I could lay and glue all the pallet boards onto it. Pallet wood can be warped and uneven, and trying to just glue the individual boards to each other and keep them flat with spaces between was very challenging.
After all the pallet wood was glued together, I placed my shark cut out on the boards and traced around the image.
Precaution, protective eyewear, and complete attentiveness are needed at all times when dealing with saws, but especially a band saw, because there are no safety guards. It’s dangerous…. but I LOVE IT!
I tried to make as little unnecessary cuts coming in from the edges as possible. If you use a jig saw, you can eliminate any outside cuts by pre drilling a starter hole for your jigsaw. That isn’t possible with a band saw.
When I was finished cutting, I was left with a 4.5 foot long black tip shark! You’ll see more of him soon. I’m still deciding where he will reside. In the meantime I collected all the outside pieces that were cut off.
Like a giant puzzle, we laid the pieces on our outdoor table, covered in cardboard, and assembled the outer image of shark. The pieces were all glued together and some were clamped. It came together pretty quickly. We were excited and happy about our new shark pallet art and everything we had accomplished that day.
I then gave the shark pallet art a heavy coat of stain with a brush, in Weathered Oak by Minwax.The stain gives the pallet art a nice driftwood color to the wood.
I’m looking forward to creating more Pallet Art with my band saw soon! Maybe I’ll even sell some pieces soon too!
via sandandsisal
