7 Extinction Events: Progress Report

Not much art got done this weekend. Notice the third person here. I'd like to believe it isn’t my fault. I do have the collaged pages finished and I’m now coloring the dinosaur a little. He is a cheap plastic thing, (from ebay) and was a very ordinary grayish green. I put some blue-green acrylic paint on him and wiped it off, to bring out the detail. Tomorrow I’ll put a light brown on top. You can see I cut out a part of the body on one side to allow the book to sit inside the dinosaur. The arm and leg will go on the front cover.



I used a jeweler’s saw to make the horizontal cuts in the dinosaur. It was an easy way to keep them fairly straight over the length of the cut. I am so used to it that I feel I have a lot of control. In this case I did make a jig that held the dinosaur in place by his feet so I could get a sort-of level cut. I wanted the book to be horizontal, which it isn’t. But it’s close enough for me. I did use a mat knife to cut the vertical cuts. This again seemed like the easiest way to get the long cut. There wasn’t enough room to maneuver the jeweler’s saw.

In general, jeweler’s saws are good for cutting lots of materials besides metal. I have cut museum board, Davey board, shells and many kinds of plastic and found objects with various degrees of success. Cutting Davey board is very easy, but it leaves a slight ragged edge that doesn’t show if the cut out areas are painted. Please note that shells when cut give off a dust that is harmful to your lungs. Be sure to wear a dust mask if you try this.