Dave, Great carving. Have you done something like this before?
I've done a bit of woodworking but first time with a carving like this integrated to the project. I've done a couple of small 3D cuts on the CNC and cherry cuts really well and requires very little sanding or clean up. I also happen to have a good supply of cherry, walnut, and oak to pick from from trees that have fallen or been taken down on our property and milled. I've milled these over the last few years so after air drying, it's all ready to use. I was hoping the darker stain on the pine would work with the cherry which only has a clear coat and happy with how it turned out.
For those interested, the removed material from the carving is about 1/2" thick at its deepest points and done in a 3/4" panel that was glued up from 3 pieces of cherry. I was/am worried that the panel will warp. The panel was oversize on the CNC machine and screwed flat around all the edges while being cut. I cut it for about 5 hours each day, for 2 reasons. First was I don't want to leave the machine running when I'm not in the shop and second, thought it might help to relieve some of the stress in the wood from the cutting by only cutting part of the pattern each day. Once the carving was complete, I put on two coats of shellac to seal the wood before I took it off the router, then immediately applied two coats to the back side to keep the panel from drying at different rates. I really like to use shellac as you can easily apply 3 coats in just a couple of hours and it builds to a nice finish.
The panel is held in the door with pocket screws from the back side running in to the frame, about 3 screws on each side, then plugged the pocket holes with a cherry plug. Again, hoping this will help to hold the panel flat but will see what a season of temperature and humidity changes do. It's under a roof so won't be directly hit by the weather.
MRG- I took a 6" square from the carving and cut it out in cherry as a preview which gave me something to use to clear coat with shellac and compare to the the pine door and the house. My original plan wasn't to use the dark stain on the door frame but we decided the pine was too light so put some of the darker stain on it to get it closer to the color of the house- it will darken a bit with time as it is the same stain used on the logs of the house which are also pine. I added the trim at the top and on the inside of the door around the screen so there would be a bit more cherry to balance it out, we'll see!
Thanks for the comments and thanks to all for keeping this thread alive, some amazing things being created.