Before I made the association of this “design” with Escher’s lizards (though some refer to them as geckos), I thought they were frogs, so please excuse my irreverent reference to them as frogs… and if you don’t like that, you can call them whatever you like… however, I’ll still stay that shady LBD.
While initially published at LJ on 17th Feb. 2021, I classified this project as a puzzle, but in reality it was just another form of a “fidget spinner” to keep one occupied when trying to fill time.
While not being a puzzle, it is one of my favourite “creations”, and I thought it worthy to import across while I’m intimidating Pottzy with my influx of “new” puzzles.
Lately I have been distributing these in packs of 3 (hand picked from these bulk "prints"... as my toes are not too nimble), with the challenge of how many different combinations people can arrange them in. If you look closely, this,
is different to, that,
unless I bugger up the photos.
Just to give a comparison between the miniature and the full size,
The detail in the small 6mm thick MDF is quite cute.
This is what the LJ'ers endured.
------------------------------------- ooooOOOO From LJ OOOOooooo -----------------------------------------
Boys and Girls,
When the missus met me she thought if I kiss that frog he'll hopefully turn into a prince. Well she didn't kiss me and at 72, I'm still that rickety old amphibian croaker.
Searched the Internet for the family tree, bypassing some French relatives that were legless even without the vino, and chose to ignore a tad number of Poles… this son of a Hungarian fern cutter found pictures of his relatives Russian around in circles.
Tried to trace over the above picture in SketchUp, however, after a few hours abandoned the quest as my thirst got the better of me.
While surfing the WEB for other puzzles I could add to my miniature collection, I came across a DXF file published by a dave.vaness.79 on Instructables. I had thought of giving dave a few shekels as a donation, but when I found out it was an Escher design, I wrote a generous cheque out to the latter and am still waiting for him to come and collect it.
When imported into CorelDraw, I created a full sized pattern,
however, reduced it to a miniature of 56mm x 60mm as I didn't think it worthy of a full scale production.
Made it my laser friendly and churned off 16 copies in miniature. For once I found that the charring of the laser gave it a great body texture and I decided not to sand the charring off the frogs, however, I did sand it off the rim/frame.
Now all I had to do was to corral these frogs
into 16 separate ponds…
with the 20¢ as an indicator of the puzzle size. Bagged them up,
ready for give aways.
On closer examination of the "puzzle" I came to realise it was not really a puzzle but an exercise of putting the right shape into the right slot and came to a conclusion it was more a presentation piece and would look good upscaled.
Churned some larger pieces out
and quickly realised I made some fundamental errors in the engraving, that weren't visible in the miniature ones, where some of the spines were misaligned and some eyes missng,
These were corrected and a new Item emerged.
I also tried some adhesive backed felt in the laser and was surprised with the result.
Unfortunately it was a bit too thick (compared to flock) and it made the puzzle protrude over the surface of the rim… though this was not a totally unacceptable outcome,
when fully bedded down,
Looking at the result, the corners looked bare so I considered engraving a frog in each corner,
Then I had a,
and rather than sitton my rrrs, decided to get a
Why not extend the engraving over the "frame"… I expanded the base design and it made an impressive collage of a froggy infestation,
Sorry for the crappy definitions of the screen dumps above.
Doctored the froggy infestation and redesigned for the frame engraving,
Then I went totally feral and turned into a thrillseeker, creating a circular pattern,
All the large items were buffed using the Beall Buffing system which is the one activity that I loathe nearly as much as reading or rechabitting.
The miniature ones, being a freebie, were left and baggied as is.
These have proven to be my most popular "puzzle", which goes to prove that it's not only the Frenchies that like frogs (and/or fries).
Anyone with a laser of CNC that may be interested, just OI me about what you require… other than my vino or my incarceration.
PS. Just a teaser for maybe another forthcoming post (bowl to the left),
bet pottzy's peeing his pants in anticipation.
Keep safe jocks... and your jocks safe!
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Don’t be crafty Craftisians,... SHARE your craft!
If your first cut is too short... Take the second cut from the longer end... LBD
Now that is really great. Love it. We have the little (real and Live) lizards round here, if the shop door is left open one visits. Named him slinky. He/she is fast.
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