Marquetry Patterns

[Gill]

My copy of the mag arrived this morning. Yes, I know I said I wasn't going to renew my subscription as a protest against late delivery to overseas subscribers. I was as good as my word, too. I let the subscription lapse so I could have a moan, then started a fresh subscription directly with Fox Chapel instead of their UK agents. So, technically I didn't renew my subscription - I took out a new one . It would have been silly to cut my nose off just to spite my face (although whoever designed these smilies wasn't worried about that).

I was delighted to see so many articles about inlay and suchlike, especially the Ken Horner article, Marquetry Basics. As some of you know, I came to scrolling from a background of cutting marquetry with a knife. It was only recently that I began to get the hang of cutting marquetry with a saw and I've still got a long way to go! What has struck me is the dearth of proper marquetry patterns which will allow budding marquetarians to develop their skills. Of course, it's possible to adapt intarsia and segmentation patterns to some degree, but none of these really lend themselves to the fabulous work which can be achieved through marquetry.

I'm wondering how others feel about the range of marquetry patterns that is available. Is marquetry something which would be more popular if only there were more patterns around, or are most scrollers happy to work in whatever niche they've settled on? Would more scrollers like to tackle marquetry but they find it daunting? Would pattern designers be prepared to design marquetry patterns or do we have a chicken and egg situation where there seem to be few scrolling marquetarians because there aren't enough patterns, but there aren't enough experienced scrolling marquetarians to design the patterns anyway?

I'm still trying to form my own opinion, but I suspect marquetry may become increasingly appealing to the scrolling community as the price of wood and shipping costs continue to rise. After all, veneers are light, which makes them cheaper to transport, and there is a vast range of exotic woods which are not normally available through lumber merchants.

Gill

[BobD]

Thanks for the great feedback, Gill! I appreciate it!

Please let us know what you think, scrollers!

Bob

[greatdane2]

After being forced by my dad to do marquetry as a kid, I did not even look at the article in the magazine. My early attempt was with a knife and a dad yelling at me about how to do it.
That said I did go to the article just now, that looks like a neat way to do things. So I will be trying to find some wood worth cutting into veneer and trying it. Will try and make some light switch covers.
I sure do like this magazine and web site. Been looking around on the wood carving site and there is a lot of info over there that we can use in what we do.

Alan.