Well, here we are
at last, the practical pages that we hope will help you
to construct your first marquetry picture. We will
assume that you have assembled the materials, tools and
veneers as described on the previous pages and are now
ready to begin. Now, as we are going to be using the
window method for making our picture let me take this
opportunity to explain the advantages of the window
method and the reasons that most marquetarians have
adopted its use almost universally these days. The main
reasons are accuracy and control.
The accuracy comes from
the fact that you cut out and remove a piece from your
“waster” veneer (the waster veneer is usually a fairly
cheap and plentiful veneer that is slightly oversized
for your finished picture, and it acts as the “blank
canvas” upon which you place the outline drawing of your
picture and it acts as the building frame from where you
construct your picture. If you select it right you could
make use of the waster veneer as the sky or foreground
of your picture, but quite often the whole of the waster
gets cut away and replaced with your various picture
veneers, hence its name of waster veneer) and by putting
this now "vacant hole" in your waster on top of the
veneer you wish to use in that part of your picture, you
can orientate your waster and picture veneers in
conjunction with each other until you find the ideal
section of the "picture veneer" that will be most
suitable for that part of your picture, then with the
two veneers, the waster on top of the "picture veneer",
you cut your picture veneer’s "potential insert" by
following the edges of the hole (or window) you
previously cut out of your waster using your scalpel.
When you've cut you
"potential insert" from your "picture veneer" check out
it's accuracy by fitting it in the vacant window of your
waster, if it fits nicely without any need for trimming
or adjustments you can now glue it in place. This method
of cutting your veneer "inserts" is as accurate as the
precision with which you can follow the edges of the
window “cut out”. With a little practice you can make
your joins so tight that when you hold the assembled
joins up to a light source you won’t see any light
creeping through. This accuracy is the principle use for
adopting the window method.
The other advantage I mentioned
is the incredible control you have with using the window
method. The first and foremost “control” is, as I
mentioned above, the advantages you will experience when
matching your picture veneer selection to the
requirements of the needs of your picture.
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