Marquetry book

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Noho12C

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Hello,

I did a bit of "federal" inlaying, following Steve latta's videos available on lie-nielsen website.

I would like now to do a bit more marquetry with simple images, such as leaves, trees or birds.

I did buy few books over the past few months, and found them quite disappointing. Showing only one cutting method, not explaining the different methods and pros/cons for each, few examples, etc.

Could anyone recommend some book he found good/useful ?

Many thanks !
Chris.

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Hi Chris, can't help with the books and if your wanting to cut with a scroll saw then I haven't done that either but have done a number using a scalpel and the window method which is pretty simple and easy enough to explain though there are a couple of tips which help get the joins tight.

Basically I cut from the back of the background veneer and at a slight angle, remove the waste bit put the required veneer under and cut around at the same angle. fit the bit from the front and tape on the front which means the piece is wedged and when scraping / sanding you have no gaps. I just use sellotape though it does get a bit thick as you're cutting through layers of the stuff and you have to be careful scraping it of in case it tears the grain.
Others do it differently so I'm not saying my way is best, it just suits me.

Not relevant possibly for you but it might be interesting to others.
A few simple ones.
 

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Thanks for the reply ! This first pic with the tree is really beautiful !
I think I will get started with the window method and see where it leads :)

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The tree was probably the easiest but visually the most attractive to those who've seen it, with hindsight a plainer background veneer would be better but like most things I used what I had rather than buy and it was one of my early attempts. Not my design but I can't remember where I got the inspiration.

If you need any help just pm me.

cheers
Bob
 
Scott Eagle has a really great book out and if you pm me an addy I will send you a decent beginners book. Also come join the Marquetry Society, you will get plenty info there.

http://www.marquetry.org/
 
Droogs":krybumjs said:
Scott Eagle has a really great book out and if you pm me an addy I will send you a decent beginners book. Also come join the Marquetry Society, you will get plenty info there.

http://www.marquetry.org/
Thanks for the offer :) ! What is the book name ?
Had a look at the marquetry society before, need to dig a bit further..

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Lons":1z3kew0b said:
The tree was probably the easiest but visually the most attractive to those who've seen it, with hindsight a plainer background veneer would be better but like most things I used what I had rather than buy and it was one of my early attempts. Not my design but I can't remember where I got the inspiration.

If you need any help just pm me.

cheers
Bob
Is there a website where I can find some designs ? Or do you just take use normal pictures as a starting point ?

I'm trying to find some easy templates/patterns online but cant seem to find anything relevant ..

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Starting out, just do basic simple things for practice. An excellent place to start is actually a colouring book and to use the line drawings in them and then when happy with technique etc you can start to look at adapting more complex images. I use Gimp to convert images/ photos etc into line drawings. Once I have an image that I want to use I have to decide how complex (how many different shades or colours will be in the picture), what woods, plastics, stone or metals will represent each colour/highlight etc. I then convert to image to a grey-scale image and then create a line drawing at the boundary of each colour/shade and then use prints of that to create the various parts either on the scroll saw or using window method etc.

The following are good books to get as well to start with
The Technique of Marquetry Marie Campkin ISBN 9780713446241
Marquetry Techniques (Manual of Techniques) Colin Holcombe ISBN13 9781861260574
and not a book but a dvd course
THE MASTER TECHNIQUES OF MARQUETRY Silas Kopf



hth
 
Noho12C":3967bv6q said:
Lons":3967bv6q said:
The tree was probably the easiest but visually the most attractive to those who've seen it, with hindsight a plainer background veneer would be better but like most things I used what I had rather than buy and it was one of my early attempts. Not my design but I can't remember where I got the inspiration.

If you need any help just pm me.

cheers
Bob
Is there a website where I can find some designs ? Or do you just take use normal pictures as a starting point ?

I'm trying to find some easy templates/patterns online but cant seem to find anything relevant ..

Sent from my VKY-L09 using Tapatalk
Sorry not have replied, I somehow missed your post.

I just converted images by hand usually from scanned pages, there's inspiration everywhere and in my case I find some of the Japanese illustrations lend themselves especially to marquetry pictures. The tiger and horse I posted are from Japanese art which is why they're a bit stylised.

Pencil and line drawings especially buildings come out well but most subjects will work. I don't know if they are still available but you used to be able to buy a kit to make a specific picture and there were quite a few to choose from. Was a very long time ago.

Much easier these days via the internet, you just need to do a bit of trawling and as Droogs suggests software makes it very simple to convert if you play around with the images. Colouring books is something I never would have thought of but why not?

Bob
 
Thanks Bob. At the moment I want to take the easy road when it comes to pictures. Used a bit of clipart pics from internet, they worked fairly well.
But wanted to make a box for a child with some marquetry, and didn't find any suitable pics (for my skills I mean). I will have a look at colouring books and see if I have more luck there.

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How old is the child?

I have a 6 year old granddaughter and if making a box for her ( I might well think about doing that now you've planted the idea ), I would probably ask her to draw something then scan and adapt that as it would be personal to her.

You're right in keeping things simple to start with. My first marquetry pic was an osprey I adapted from an Audubon bird book, still have the book and the marquetry and it was far too complicated so almost put me off, Osprey wasn't too bad but I had limited choice of veneers and as usual also just used what I had for a background which spoiled it.
 
The child is about 5. Putting their own drawing is a great idea actually ! I saw a post on Instagram with that yesterday.

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What was the instagram post? Not a service I ever access.

What gave me the idea was the comment about colouring books. My granddaughter loves to draw and colour and a couple few months ago sat their cat in front of her and drew it, she produced an amazing likeness and that's what came to mind as a copy is on my pc somewhere and I could easily convert it.
I'm getting quite enthesed about that now so it's on my project list.
 
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