Kenneth Hillyer
olathe, Kansas
A Prie-dieu is a prayer bench, used for centuries. My design has 4 medallions, and 15 different inlays(note the tiniest one, a cross, beside the dime on the table top). I also used various V-carving techniques and developed a way to color in the V-carves. All with Easel Pro and my X-Carve.
Easel Pro Design Challenge
This particular design is something that I spent literally hours composing. As with many final designs, they evolve slowly over time. I chose to use 4 different plaques incorporated into this one. Luther’s Rose, a Christogram, St. Benedict’s Medal and a Trinity Knot. All of these medallions represent things which were very important, even sacred, throughout the history of the orthodox church. Even if a particular person is not religious, they can still find very good reasons to show some respect for what these medallions stand for. The phrase I chose to write in the original Greek language on the table top is a font which I pulled from Easel’s Pro library. (they have so many, what a great resource). I used a gloss polyurethane finish for the table top and satin for the base. It is made from Santos Mahogany. The medallions are from Quilted Maple with a gloss lacquer finish. I was able to develop techniques for cutting out very detailed inlays(several are from the Easel pro’s library and some I imported into my project page from the internet). A few even required using a 1/32 inch down-cut spiral bit(and they are so easy to break). But the inlay app from the Easel Pro software program was able to cut them for me without a flaw. Very impressive technology!
Let me just add that I am not a professional woodworker, I am just a hobbyist. Even though I have produced dozens of plaques with my X-Carve over the last few years, I have not sold any of them. Most of them I have given away as gifts to people who have positively impacted the lives of myself and family.
