Pallet Art: Shark

Shark sighting!!! Jaws is lurking around the kids’ playroom. He may not be a Great White, but he’s a ferocious black tip that dwells in the waters right off my coast! This fun shark pallet art is about as close as I ever want to get to meeting a shark. I’m in love with pallet art right now. If you liked my Surfboard Pallet Art and the pallet Wood Beach Banner, then you’ll like today’s tutorial on Shark Pallet Art.

I started off the project printing out an image of a black tip shark onto a transparency. (I placed it on a white sheet of paper for you to see the image).

Next, using my overhead projector and transparency, I traced the shark image onto the back of some wrapping paper and then cut the image out with scissors.

I lined up the boards that were cut from a pallet and glued them together with wood glue and held them snug with clamps. (For instructions on how to disassemble a pallet, please refer to the Pallet Art: Surfboard post).

TIP: Now if I had to do this all over again, I would find a thin board to use as a backing.  Then I could lay and glue all the pallet boards onto it. Pallet wood can be warped and uneven, and trying to just glue the individual boards to each other and keep them flat with spaces between was very challenging.

After all the pallet wood was glued together, I placed my shark cut out on the boards and traced around the image.

I’ve used a jig saw to cut shapes out of pallet wood, but this time I was able to try out my hubs new Father’s Day gift! I was quite happy to purchase a new band saw for him. Seriously, this was a tool we have both wanted for ages. It cuts wood like butter but it’s not to be messed with! Precaution, protective eyewear, and complete attentiveness are needed at all times when dealing with saws, but especially a band saw, because there are no safety guards. It’s dangerous…. but I LOVE IT!

I tried to make as little unnecessary cuts coming in from the edges as possible. If you use a jig saw, you can eliminate any outside cuts by pre drilling a starter hole for your jigsaw. That isn’t possible with a band saw.

When I was finished cutting, I was left with a 4.5 foot long black tip shark! You’ll see more of him soon. I’m still deciding where he will reside. In the meantime I collected all the outside pieces that were cut off.

Like a giant puzzle, we laid the pieces on our outdoor table, covered in cardboard, and assembled the outer image of shark. The pieces were all glued together and some were clamped. It came together pretty quickly. We were excited and happy about our new shark pallet art and everything we had accomplished that day. So we decided to go out for dinner and a movie. Well while we were out having fun and the shark was on the table back at home drying and setting up….

the most massive thunderstorm with torrential rain, lightening, and 60 mile per hour winds came through.

Our shark had um…. swam away... in multiple pieces... which all then swelled….. and warped… UHG!

All of our hard work was destroyed. I said forget it, throw it out, but hubs decided to patch ol’black tip together again, with a ton more glue and about every clamp we owned. He was on a mission to save this shark!

He was able to save the shark. It’s a little warped but it’s together.

I then gave the shark pallet art a heavy coat of stain with a brush, in Weathered Oak by Minwax. It’s the same stain I used for my Wine Crate Storage Box. The stain gives the pallet art a nice driftwood color to the wood. 

I love how it turned out! He’s big and bad! My youngest loves him!

The Shark Pallet Art blends in great with the Shell Art Gallery Wall. Everyone asks this, so let me tell you…. the wall color is Atmospheric by Benjamin Moore.

I’m looking forward to creating more Pallet Art with my band saw soon! Maybe I’ll even sell some pieces soon too!

Kim

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