Lay Out the Pattern
Begin by cutting your pattern apart with scissors. Save the pattern scraps as they have other information you will need. Lay the pattern pieces on your board paying attention to the grain direction arrow on the horse's head.
Leave some space between the parts when you are laying the pieces out to make sawing them apart easier. Small pieces of tape are helpful in holding the patterns in place. Choose an arrangement to take advantage of the natural characteristics of the wood. The horse's head, for instance, is its most prominent part. Choose an interesting wood grain to represent the speed of a running horse with flowing mane. When you are pleased with the layout of the pattern, trace the edges carefully onto the wood with a ball point pen.
Each variety of tree has its own particular characteristics, influenced by soil, light, altitude, seasons and weather. Each individual tree has its own individual growth patterns. While two pieces of oak plank may look similar, nature with her infinite variations has decreed that two pieces can never be identical.
Wood and Wood Grains -- 1971
Phil Brodatz
The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see Nature all ridicule and deformity, and some scarce see Nature at all.
But to the eyes of the man of imagination, Nature is Imagination itself.
William Blake, 1799, The Letters
