My personal interest in marquetry came about following a trip with my wife, Beth, to the Oregon beach in the summer of 2003. While there, we were visiting several art shops when one gallery in particular interested me with their marvelous displays of metal wall sculptures. As we browsed through this shop a wonderful piece on the back wall caught my eye, depicting a classic viewpoint of Haystack Rock on Cannon Beach. The artist had skillfully worked in trees and other nature, truly capturing the essence of this well known landmark. I knew for sure this piece would look great hanging in the front room of our home above the couch. That was, ahem, until I inquired about the cost. He wanted $5,500 for it.

Huh? Was he kidding!

On our way out of the shop I half jokingly commented to Beth that I thought I could make something similar to that art piece, only out of wood, and for far less money. I chose wood because I didn't have any metal tools or metal art experience. Actually, come to think of it, I didn't have any woodworking tools or woodworking experience either so who was I kidding? In fact, the last thing I had actually built out of wood was a bird house, which was to be used as a letterbox hiding spot. However, to date, neither a bird nor a letterbox has found a home in it, as it sits quietly vacant upon a shelf in my garage.

But the idea stayed with me and later in the week I mentioned it to my friend Bill, who is in fact a real woodworker. Not only does he have all the woodworking tools, but he has the knowledge too as he has built several pieces of furniture over the years.

Upon sharing my experience at the beach and my thoughts about me having enough ability to attempt a similar art piece to the one I had seen, except making it from wood, Bill said, "They already have a name for that. It's called marquetry."

Ummm, "mar-qua" what?

I promptly researched marquetry on the Internet and found several links to marquetry organizations around the world. Now, marquetry wasn't exactly what I'd had in mind for this project, but after viewing several impressive pictures created by marquetarians, I felt that this type of art form may be the better way to go. For one thing, marquetry didn't seem to require a large overhead of tools, equipment and expense to get started.

With the idea of learning this art and craft on my own, Bill and I headed over to a near by wood store to look for books, tools and veneers for my marquetry project. There we found some instruction books and a starter package of veneers, but none of the specific tools recommended in the books. But, as luck would have it as I was explaining to the store clerks what I wanted to do, one of them said there was a local local marquetry club who met at their store once a month, and they had a contact sheet for anyone interested posted on a back message board.

Well the rest as they say, is history. I contacted the club, joined the local chapter and national organization too and am now designing and creating my own marquetry art pictures.

By the way, in case you are wondering if I've completed the initial piece that got me interested in marquetry to begin with, the answer is "not yet", but I plan to very soon.

To view the marquetry pictures I've made so far, go to my gallery.

 

 

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