“Trompe l’oeil” is an old French phrase that literally means “it fools the eye.” It has a long tradition in the art world—and in woodworking too. When you first saw the ribbons, did you think to yourself, “Are they really made of wood?”
Wooden Ribbons makes a terrific presentation on a wooden gift box particularly if there’s something special inside. See mine here. The ribbon itself is fairly basic, but it’s made in a way that can be adapted to many different designs.
These can be made out of any wood. I’ve made these out of Pine and Cedar and also Walnut and Maple. Making the bows and ribbons just involves one trick: They must be cut on a scroll saw. You will also need a table saw.
STOCK PREPARATION
These ribbons are made by laminating several woods together. Each of these pieces as shown are 3” wide. The cedar piece is ¼” thick and the two pine pieces are ½” thick. You can make this what you want. Experiment. In addition, you make their lengths according to the length of ribbon you want. It’s a good idea to have the grain of each running in the same direction. Glue them up.
When dry, remove the clamps and square up (trim) the laminated block. Then lightly sand all the surfaces with 220. You’re ready to make ribbons and bows!
CUTTING A STRAIGHT PIECE
I wanted about a 1/16” thick straight piece. This is the portion you see wrapped around the wooden box. I set my table saw fence and sliced off this piece as shown. Then I lightly sanded the faces. Note that the laminations are on the side as it is cut. This applies when cutting other pieces.
CUTTING CURVES and BOW PIECES
Here I mark up a curved ribbon and a loop for the bow in pencil as shown. You are cutting on each side of the pencil lines. This gives you your thickness. You can shape your pieces to amazing curves, etc. The sky is the limit. Again note that the laminations are on the side as it is cut. Again, it is mandatory to have a scrollsaw for this.
COMPLETION
Now all you have to do, if needed, is to lightly sand it up. Then apply a finish. I find spray lacquer to be quite nice and it adds strength to the possible fragile pieces.
I hope you enjoyed my little tutorial! The possibilities are endless with this technique!
I really like the wooden ribbons and they’d be a great addition to projects from time to time. My scroll saw sucks. I probably need to upgrade it. Thanks for the write up!!
Ryan/// ~sigh~ I blew up another bowl. Moke told me "I made the inside bigger than the outside".
Nice! I suppose one could also just steam bend if the proper wood is used and the glue can take the heat. Maybe if they were even thinner, they could be bent without any heat.
Of course then they would be flopping around and eventually get lost.
hey duckie where are you ? you always complain there is not enough blogs and tutorials, well he's crankin em out so get on here ! ya gotta support those that go the extra mile.
working with my hands is a joy,it gives me a sense of fulfillment,somthing so many seek and so few find.-SAM MALOOF.
Interesting!! Do you laminate the layers with the grain in different directions to overcome short grain? Another addition for you that I've tried a few times for my box corner splines, is to include a sheet of coloured paper in the laminate. It obviously gives a very fine line when cut. I keep thinking I should try more sheets of paper, either to give a slightly thicker fine line, or different coloured papers to give a different 'pattern'. I have friend who uses sheets of white paper when making his ukulele purfling strips.
Madburg.... no I laminate so the grain of both woods runs in same direction. That way if I have to touch up with a plane or sandpaper there's no issue. Interesting about the paper. I've known about that method but have never tried it.
All parts of the tree (at least those that aren't edible) should be considered fair game for slicing, dicing, and being turned into sawdust and assorted wood items!
From what I understand, leaves are not the same as sawdust. Sawdust is much higher in lignin and cellulose. However, leaves are a great source of organic matter. There's no reason they can't be used in crafts and woodworking provided they've been dried out properly.
