Blog Posts

Checkmate

December 28, 2020

private collection In 2012 the Metropolitan Museum in New York was going to have an exhibition of the furniture of Abraham and David Roentgen, 18th century cabinetmakers who made remarkable mechanical pieces. They were also marquetry masters. I knew the exhibit was coming and had long admired the Roentgen marquetry. I was less familiar with…

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Saqqara

December 23, 2020

private collection Saqqara is the site in Egypt with the famous step pyramid of Djoser from around 2680 BCE. I have had a long standing interstate's in Egyptian art and architecture. I wanted to build a chest of drawers that would be a show piece for beautiful amboyna burl veneer. We made a series of…

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Aube et Crépuscule (Dawn and Dusk)

December 23, 2020

Musée de l'École de Nancy, Nancy, France Émile Gallé Gallé was one of the most important designer of the Art Nouveau period. He not only designed furniture but glass and ceramics. His furniture included production work as well as one of a kind art pieces for special clients or exhibitions. This bed is truly amazing.…

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Majorelle cabinet

December 21, 2020

I first saw this cabinet as a black and white image in a marquetry book when I first started woodworking. I immediately gravitated to it. I loved Art Nouveau carving with the swirling lines. And here was a piece that also used marquetry. What struck me was that the marquetry was the focal point of…

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Marquetry workshop of Louis Majorelle

December 21, 2020

Louis Majorelle was a French art nouveau furniture designer. He lived in Nancy and had a large factory with over 100 workers. He was a bit of an economic hero, employing so many people and his work was sold throughout Europe. Majorelle did production work and one-of-a-kind art furniture as well. Most of his designs…

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Sue and Mare desk and chair

December 19, 2020

Private collection Louis Sue and André Mare were furniture designers in the 20's in Paris. They did some very elegant and exclusive furniture in the art Deco style. This desk and chair set is an enormously complicated thing to build. First of all, it is done in ebony, which is physically the hardest wood cabinetmakers…

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Time to see the light, sinner!

November 19, 2020

private collection Time to see the light, sinner! This trompe l'oeil cabinet has two doors, with button below the apron to push the doors open to gain access to the interior. The motif contains objects that puritan sensibilities might find offensive, like smoking and drinking. That's the "sinner" part of the title. "Time, to see,…

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What a Knuklehead

November 8, 2020

Collection Wilsonart Inc. In the 1990's the Wilsonart Corporation, a manufacturer of plastic laminate, wanted to introduce a new product. Customers would be able to design their own graphic to be printed on the plastic sheets. They asked about two dozen furniture designers if they would like to participate in designing a laminate, and I…

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Bamboo cabinet

November 3, 2020

private collection When i first started making furniture I attempted to combine Art Nouveau style shaping with marquetry panels. I was enamored of the work of Émile Gallé and Louis Majorelle. Their work had those lovely sweeping lines and engaging botanical marquetry. I lived in Rochester, New York and there was a veneer dealer in…

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Buffet

September 9, 2020

private collection This buffet has marquetry medallions with the family dogs. The cabinet itself is done in mahogany and mahogany crotch. The borders around the panels are boulle-work. Boulle-work is the technique of taking a metal and a darker material (usually wood), placing them together and cutting the motif. This yields two parts, one with…

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Panther cabinet

June 3, 2020

private collection This little cabinet employs several different techniques. The basic wood is zebrawood, quarter sawn for its parallel stripes. The pieces are cut into squares and pieced together with every other one turned ninety degrees. The largest parquetry parts are at the bottom and every row gets a little smaller as it ascends. The…

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Mallard Chairs

May 25, 2020

private collection Chairs are such an everyday part of our lives that they are often taken for granted. From a woodworker's perspective they can be quite a challenge to make. The reason for their complexity is that a comfortable chair has a lot of angles that deviate from 90 degrees. This makes for a complicated…

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Side chairs

May 2, 2020

private collection Mallard chairs Chairs may seem like simple everyday objects, but they can be quite difficult to make because of the angles involved. When you deviate from the right angle things get complicated. So when I go through the trouble of making the set-ups and jigs for chairs I usually hope to do sets.…

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Tea cabinet

April 29, 2020

private collection I have done many cabinets with this format. Upright, single marquetry door. This was one of the more elaborate ones. The cabinet itself had shaped cabriole legs with an inlay running up the corners. There were curved sabots added to the bottoms of the legs. The panels were made from madrone burl, which tonally…

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Karl Franz box

April 15, 2020

Austrian Museum of Applied Art, Vienna This elegant little box was done by Karl Franz in 1912. The materials are pear wood, bronzed pear wood, and abalone. Abalone is such a mesmerizing material. The colors dance as you move your eye. Here it is beautifully set off in the ebonized pear. The elliptical shapes of…

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Urban Theme

April 3, 2020

private collection This is a corner cabinet. The marquetry is quite simple, using just ebony and holly on a ground of figured avodire. My intent was to have the ebony look like calligraphic brush strokes. My gallery representation in New York used to be in Soho. Soho was a grittier place back then and one…

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Jim MacDonald art guitar

March 30, 2020

Jim MacDonald and I have been friends for decades. He is an excellent marqueteur and has been making some fantastic guitars using the technique. See another example of Jim's work in the Friends section of this blog. He has mastered the added dimension of wood burning to give his artwork an extra bit of three-dimensionality.…

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George Jack secretary

March 27, 2020

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond George Jack Secretary This fall front secretary was designed by George Jack. Made in 1893-96, it is the tradition of William Morris, who was a huge influence on the English Arts and Crafts movement. The piece is mahogany with a stylized marquetry of oak leaves. Parts of the  marquetry…

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Telephone cabinet 1

March 25, 2020

Private collection This piece was done in my series of self-portraits. I based it on the work of Antonio Barili and his figurative work. Braille would create three-dimensional illusions by framing the figure in a window.there were often parts, such as hands or elbows protruding through the opening. This was my timid attempt at a…

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Toy Cabinet

February 15, 2020

Brooklyn Museum of Art Someone asked where my work might be found in public collections: I have made many troupe l'ceil "open cupboard" cabinets over the years and am pleased that several have found their way into public collections. Toy Cabinet was made about 2010 and is at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. It appears…

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Lectern

February 15, 2020

New Orleans Museum of Art Someone asked where my work might be found in public collections: In 1991 I made a lectern that used a simple marquetry graphic with a figure/ground relationship. There were eleven identical faces and hands running around the three sides, looking as if the person were addressing the audience. The lower…

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Majorelle piano

February 14, 2020

Musée de l'École de Nancy, Nancy, France The Death of the Swan Piano In 1988 I was commissioned by Steinway to make a piano case (xxxxx). My immediate thoughts went to the great piano that Louis Majorelle designed in 1903. the marquetry was designed by Victor Prouvé. Provo's solution was to make the marquetry look…

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Floyd Collins

February 12, 2020

private collection Floyd Collins was a Kentucky cave explorer who became trapped in a cave in the 1920's. His attempted rescue became a national media sensation. Print and radio reporters were camped out waiting days to see if he could be saved. sadly he didn't make it. I have a bit of a claustrophobic streak.…

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Scott Grove marquetry

January 21, 2020

My friend Scott Grove has been doing interesting things with burl veneers. He pieces the parts together to create "seamless" patterns with the wood. He exploits the heartwood-sapwood contrasts to make swirls and spirals. The technique is fundamentally marquetry. I should point out the base of the table which has a burl covering a compound…

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Tea Cabinet

January 15, 2020

Museum of Art and Design, New York Someone asked where my work might be found in public collections: Tea Cabinet (1985) This trompe l’oeil cabinet depicts a tea pot, cups and saucers. The door looks as if it is cocked open, but is flat with the front. The door sits in a non-rectilinear recess. There…

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Gothic Fall Front Desk

December 31, 2019

private collection This fall-front desk was the first trompe l'oeil piece I did with "glass" doors. Previous pieces had had solid frame and panel doors. https://silaskopf.com/fall-front-desk-marquetry-inlay-trompeloeil-mahogany-intarsia/Imitating glass allowed for a much broader marquetry image. The objects in the cabinet are arranged in a casual still life effect. The woods used are curly laurel for the…

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Certosina

December 31, 2019

Detroit Institute of Arts A style or decoration emerged in northeast Italy in the late 15th century known as certosina. It is named after the celebrated Carthusian monastery, Certosa di pavia, where the monks practiced the craft of piecing together small geometric parts in a pattern to cover larger surfaces. The work looks very Islamic…

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Trio

December 30, 2019

private collection The marquetry figures in this folding screen are about 80% life size. This gave me the opportunity to put a lot of detail in the picture, like the brass parts on the trumpet and the strings on the instruments. The wooden instruments are easy to depict in marquetry for obvious reasons. Two of…

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Dental Chair

December 30, 2019

private collection When cutting chair parts that have a lot of shaping one occasionally will cut into the wood blank and discover ingrown knots or flaws. Cherry is particularly good at disguising problem areas. So when making a run of chairs it can save time to make an extra set of blanked out parts so…

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Steinway piano

December 29, 2019

private collection Morning Glory Piano In 1988 Steinway and Sone contacted me about making an art case for one of their pianos. I chose to do a Model L which iOS the mid-size grand. I wanted the marquetry to run around the rim of the piano. I chose a floral pattern and. Putting marquetry on…

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Gallé box

December 29, 2019

Musée de l'École de Nancy When I first started making marquetry I focused on jewelry boxes https://silaskopf.com/jewelry-boxes-marquetry-inlay/. French Art Nouveau was my inspiration. I had seen this picture of a box by Émile Galle from around 1900 and thought it to be the ultimate box. It featured marquetry and carving. This was where I hoped…

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Mirror

December 27, 2019

This is a life-size marquetry portrait of my father. It is as if he were looking in a mirror and adjusting his tie. The marquetry picture was cut and glued into a panel. This panel is pressed into the frame with the glass mirror. Where the picture is I scraped the silver off the back…

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Goldfish sideboard

December 26, 2019

private collection Mother-of-pearl and abalone shell are mesmerizing materials, particularly when they are set in ebony. This is something that luthiers have understood for a long time. The shell reacts to light in wonderful ways. Goldfish mixed natural woods and dyed woods with the shell. The fins of the fish were all cut and joined…

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Wendell Castle

December 23, 2019

I met in Wendell Castle in 1973 about a year after graduating from college. I was introduced by Richard Newman, a furniture maker whose work I had seen and admired. I had hoped for a possibility of working for Richard, but he had a helper and didn't need anyone at the time. But he said,…

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Racine Art Museum

December 15, 2019

Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI Someone asked where they might find my work in public collections: The Racine Art Museum in Wisconsin is one of America’s premier institutions exhibiting crafts. About two years ago they were given a game set that I made in 2001. The square table has a parquetry checkerboard and each of…

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Cracked Parabola

December 2, 2019

private collection The parabola is a beautiful shape. There is an elegant math to it. It can be somewhat difficult to construct.... The marquetry design for this piece was generated from the idea that tracks would radiate out from the break in the surface. The satinwood used for the main surface contrasts nicely with the…

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Fishscale Chest of Drawers

December 2, 2019

I had the chance to go to Paris and study traditional marquetry technique. One thing i was particularly interested in was making duplicate motifs. Some of the great French cabinetmakers used this technique to cover large surface areas. There is a tools that was used called the chevalet. The chevalet allowed packets of veneers to be cut…

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Sue and Mare Commode

December 1, 2019

private collection Louis Sue and André Mare were two of the most important designers of the French Art Deco period. They formed a partnership after the end of World War I as the French economy was returning to normal. They not only designed furniture but lighting, carpets, and wall coverings. This commode from about 1925…

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Chest of Drawers

December 1, 2019

Austrian Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna Eduard Wimmer-Wisgrill This interesting chest of drawers came out of the Wiener-Werstatte. It was designed by Wimmer-Wisgrill in 1908. There are six layers stacked on top of one another. The rhythm of the geometry is enhanced by the darker ebony lines running around the rectangles. The outside of each…

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Aloha Shirt Cabinet

December 1, 2019

private collection Years ago I decided to rebel against the drab flannels that most woodworkers wear. I started wearing Hawaiian shirts, even though I'm in New England and far from any tropical shore. My wife suggested at some point that I design a pattern that could be used on fabric. I took a look at…

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Herter Brothers

December 1, 2019

Virginia Museum of Art, Richmond Herter Brothers Many Germans emigrated to America in the middle of the 19th century (including some of my ancestors…). Gustave and Christian Herter came from Wurttemberg and settled in New York. Initially their work was indistinguishable from much of the furniture being built on the continent. However, by 1870 they…

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Harvey Ellis Cabinet

November 30, 2019

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond Harvey Ellis was a designer who worked for the Stickley Company around the turn of the century. Stickler was well known for producing well-made simple designs in the Arts and Crafts style. The primary woods used were oak and they were always stained a deep, rich brown. Ellis occasionally…

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November 20, 2019

private collection To be more painterly with my marquetry I decided I had to start putting significantly more detail into the picture. Flowers that might have had six or seven pieces when I started making furniture. To blend the tones it meant smaller pieces of wood and many, many more of them. So flowers become…

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Majorelle chair

November 12, 2019

Louis Majorelle Majorelle is an early influence on my work and one of my favorite designers. He worked in Nancy, France at the turn of the 20th century and was a major Art Nouveau artist. he mixed marquetry with carving to create very interesting furniture. Here is an unusual chair that that has a floral…

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Cage Cabinets

November 11, 2019

Private collections Occasionally when I would get a commission I would make two because then the cabinet parts could be made more efficiently. this isn't the case with the marquetry because the pictures are all always unique. In this case i had a client for a cabinet with a cage (Jailbreak) like jailbreak. It was…

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Minbar

November 10, 2019

Badia Palace   Marrakesh, Morrocco Minbar from Cordoba, Spain (1137) This marvelous minbar (a pulpit used in a mosque) is now in the Badia palace in Marrakesh, Morrocco. Thousands of ebony and ivory parts are inlaid into cedar wood. The composition is complex and typical of some of the fine work found inIslamic furniture. It…

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Secrétaire

November 5, 2019

Fontainebleau Palace, France Secrétaire by Jean-Henri Riesener This eye-catching roll-front secrétaire was made by Jean-Henri reseller just a few years before the French Revolution. It was a commission from Marie Antoinette. Mother-of-pearl is indeed opulent. It is also difficult to work (certainly more so than wood). This is the type of piece Riesener made many…

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Flukulele

November 4, 2019

Flukulele Several years ago my shopmate, Tom Coughlin, came in one morning and said he was going to make a couple of ukuleles for his kids. (he's an excellent guitar maker.) I said that perhaps i would "shadow him as he made part I would follow. I ended up with a fairly conventional baritone uke.…

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Cuckoo Clock

November 4, 2019

Here is another in my series of pieces using a self portrait. In this case it is a cuckoo clock. The marquetry is done with all natural woods except the background which is dyed-black obeche. the mechanism works like a traditional cuckoo, except instead of the birdie coming out of the trap door it is…

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Baseball cabinet

November 4, 2019

private collection It can be a delight to work with clients when you share an interest. I love baseball and when asked to do a cabinet with a baseball theme I jumped at the chance. This husband and wife couple were a Brooklyn Dodgers fans. They have a marvelous collection of memorabilia and they loaned…

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Trumpet desk

November 4, 2019

I was commissioned to make a writing desk with a jazz theme. I chose to have about forty silhouettes of trumpets running around the top. Each had to be identical to make it look like the marquetry was stenciled. The laser cutter was the perfect tool for this, as once the design is in the…

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Dining set

November 4, 2019

private collection About twenty years ago I was commissioned to make a set of eight dining chairs to go in the home in Florida. The clients wanted a different motif on each chair. The same marquetry picture is on both the inside and outside of the back. This makes it look as if the marquetry…

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Kiss My Ass

October 15, 2019

Someone asked where my work might be found in public collections: I have made several Kiss My Ass stools. I pair of them was recently donated to the Center for Art in Wood in Philadelphia. Each one has a slightly different oversized “kissy” face. The Center for Art in Wood has a wonderful collection of…

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Certosina chest

October 10, 2019

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam Artistic influences come from many different sources. Cross cultural pollination often happens when trade develops. Italy of the Renaissance was well suited for absorbing ideas from around the Mediterranean. Certosina decoration came from a monastery in the area not far from Venice, the center of Italian trade. In certosina small geometric pieces are…

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Formication

October 2, 2019

private collection A National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 1988 gave me an opportunity to study traditional marquetry in Paris. One of the things I hoped to learn was the way classical marquetry would be cut for repeated motifs. This is something I had seen in the work of Riesener (XXXXX). The tools for…

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Writing Table

September 28, 2019

J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles Writing Table This exquisite writing table is attributed to Pierre Golle and was built around 1670. The basic materials are ivory and horn. The horn is translucent and has a mottled character. It can be painted or have colored paper glued to the back side and that color will…

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Four Arts

September 15, 2019

Smith College Museum of Art Someone asked where my work might be found in public collections: A Smith College alumnae wanted to follow the lead of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and Yale University and commission furnituremakers to build public seating to go in galleries of the Smith Art Museum. I was one…

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Cabinet on Stand

September 5, 2019

Musée d'Orsay, Paris Ernest Gimson Gimson was one of the great English Arts and Crafts designers. He was one of several talented individuals who took their cues from William Morris and John Ruskin. Gibson was trained as an architect, but was encouraged by Morris to design furniture. He worked with a superb Dutch emigrant woodworker…

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Nest of Birds

August 30, 2019

I wanted to make a really complex marquetry picture with lots of detail. I had done many birds previously and thought they made an excellent subject. For this piece I wanted to put the picture at a height where it could easily be appreciated. Essentially the cabinet became a frame for the picture. There are…

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Larry McCulloch

August 27, 2019

From time to time I am posting marquetry pictures from friends. This panel is by Larry McCulloch. Larry took my class years ago in Colorado. At the end of classes I was in the habit of suggesting that if people had made something they wanted to share with me I would be pleased to take…

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Cognac cabinet

August 23, 2019

This small cabinet had several interesting elements. The marquetry door was to look partly open. It needed to be built in a "pocket" in the front. The play of the cast shadows was important in creating the three-dimensional illusion. These shadows needed to run over the maple parts of the cabinet. The apron below the…

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Yale University Art Gallery

August 13, 2019

Someone asked where my work might be found in public collections: An alumnus of Yale University wanted to follow the lead of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and commission furnituremakers to build public seating to go in galleries of the university’s Art Museum. I was one of a dozen or so people asked…

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Egyptian Woodworking

August 8, 2019

Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, England British Museum, London Egyptian inlay The roots of the marquetry craft go back to ancient Egypt. There is a fragment of a box at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England that might not appear too exciting, but it is the oldest piece of marquetry to have ever been found. It is…

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Box by Greg Zall

August 5, 2019

From time to time I am featuring work of contemporaries that I admire. Here is a container made by Greg Zall (I believe it is for cremation ashes). The morning glories are beautifully executed, but what I particularly admire is the careful matching of the grain at the corner transitions. This isn't easy to do…

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Oyster Cabinet

August 2, 2019

Rijkmuseum, Amsterdam This cabinet from Holland (c. 1690) is veneered almost entirely with oysters https://silaskopf.com/writing-desk/ made of olivewood. The variety of tones in the oysters is part of the charm. Some of the sections are cut at angles, elongating the figures. There are lighter parts that are primarily sapwood. These surround very dark parts. This creates…

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Baseball Panel

July 30, 2019

private collection I made a set of panels focussing on hands playing games. There was chess, bridge,  billiards, and this panel depicting baseball. They were all oversize, about 40 inches in the long dimension. I particularly liked the Baseball panel. The wood tones in the gloves are perfect. The stitching in the glove's webbing adds…

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Barili saint

July 24, 2019

La Collegiata, San Querico d'Orcia, Italy This is one of the finest intarsia panels made by Antonio Barili (see earlier post on Barili). It was part of a set made around 1500. What first attracted me to this work was the life-like representation. The pose is interesting with the man leaning out the window and…

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Cracked Ice Tables

July 15, 2019

Someone asked where my work might be found in public collections: In 2005 the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts put together an exhibition titled, Inspired by China. The Peabody Essex has an outstanding collection of Asian art, much of it having come to America at the height of the 18th century China trade that…

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Sloppy Paint Job

July 13, 2019

private collection Sloppy Paint Job I wanted to to take a fairly straight-forward furniture form and add an amusing bit of marquetry to it. This little cabinet was made from shedua (an African wood) and the panels were pieced together with a diamond parquetry. I had some satinwood that had nice color and figure and…

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Jailbreak

July 5, 2019

Jailbreak fits into the "open cupboard" troupe l'oeil pieces that i have been exploring for  a long time. It's a little different in that there is no depiction of a glass door or a solid door, but a wire cage door that looks partly open. To keep the front flat the doors had to be…

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Coffee table

July 2, 2019

private collection I was contacted by a couple named Joel and Anne, asking about having me make a piece. We decided on a coffee table. They wanted something trompe l'oeil, but that can be difficult, as there are so many possible viewing points. But things that lie relatively flat will work. Things of paper, like…

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Pierre Ramond

June 21, 2019

Pierre Ramond In 1987 I was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. I wanted to do something special with the money. I contacted the author of a book on marquetry who taught at the celebrated École Boulle in Paris with the hope of studying the classic marquetry methods. I told him I couldn't…

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Falling Oysters

June 20, 2019

private collection Some limbs of trees can be cutting veneers. These disks are called "oysters". Often the oysters have great character and can show the growth of the tree. You can follow the knots from piece to piece as the little branch enters and exits the larger limb. Walnut is an excellent wood for oysters.…

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Bringer of Peace

June 18, 2019

Bringer of Peace This marquetry panel is by Spider Johnson. Spider lives in Texas and we have been pals for ages. Spider has cut marquetry in the traditional fashion and has added the laser to his arsenal. This has led to our working together several times in the last decade or so. Among the Lakota…

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Coffee table

June 17, 2019

My first forays into marquetry furniture were modeled on the French Art Nouveau. I used the floral designs that had been jewelry box tops and made bigger panels. Pictures for coffee tables were about four feet long. The table members were carved in the sinuous Art Nouveau manner. I also did Nouveau-styled cabinets with marquetry…

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Aquarium 2

June 15, 2019

Fuller Museum, Brocton, MA Someone asked where my work might be found in public collections: Octopuses are among the most amazing creatures on Earth, and I have long found them intriguing. I thought I might be able to pull off depicting one in marquetry if I could get the suckers to look right. I needed…

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Wendell Castle game table

June 10, 2019

In 1974 I started work for Wendell Castle. The pieces he made were interesting and challenging for me as a relatively inexperienced woodworker. I did a lot of sanding and finishing.... After about a year on the job I was given more responsibilities. One of my tasks was to learn how to make these elegant…

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Hadley Chest

June 7, 2019

private collection An iconic piece of American furniture is the Hadley chest. These objects were made in the Connecticut River valley in the colonial era. Hadley is a neighboring town to Northampton, where I live. Typically Hadley chests had lifting tops and drawers. The decorative work was stylized chip carving. Often the designs were floral.…

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Floral Still-life

June 3, 2019

private collection Floral Vase Cabinet Flowers have always been a great subject for decoration. The shapes and colors offer endless variety. When I started making marquetry I mimicked the French Art Nouveau floral patterns of Gallé (see earlier post) and Majorelle (see earlier post). Eventually I made much more complex and painterly pictures to use…

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Intarsia panel

June 3, 2019

Monte Oliveto Maggiore, Italy Fra Giovanni da Verona Giovanni was the master of the illusionary intarsia open cupboard. The choir stalls at the Monte olivet Maggiore monastery near Siena are decorated with his panels. They were made around 1500. At the time artists were exploring perspective drawing and objects had to be carefully laid out…

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Ziggurat

May 31, 2019

It's always a treat to work with sumptuous materials. This chest of drawers was all about the materials. The basic wood is thuya burl. The veneering is interesting because the boxes housing the drawers are all different sizes. Strings of inlays run around all the edges. I purchased thousands of triangles of mother-of-pearl that had…

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Egyptian Coffer

May 28, 2019

Egyptian Museum, Cairo Coffer from Tutankhamen's tomb This coffer was made during the reign of the Pharaoh Tutankhamen (1332-1323 BCE). Wooden furnishings have not survived from the ancient world except in Egypt, where dry climatic conditions have been favorable to preservation. The trove of objects discovered in Tut's tomb is world renowned. This coffer made…

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Primal Woodworking

May 24, 2019

private collection A trip to italy in 1984 introduced me to the portrait intarsia of Antonio Barili Antonio Barili self-portrait. I had previously seen a photo of his self-portrait at work. When I errand I thought I'd give a self-portrait a try. I took a photo of myself chewing on a piece of celery, and…

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Portrait of Pierre Rosenau

May 21, 2019

private collection This magnificent marquetry portrait was made around 1930 by a Russian immigrant to France name Vassilieffe. He worked in the workshop of Pierre Rosenau and made this picture of his employer. The picture is only about twelve inches high yet it has incredible detail. Look at all the pieces of wood no larger…

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Who’s Chicken, Now?

May 15, 2019

Someone asked where my work might be found in public collections: I always look at a finished piece and ask myself, “If I were to do this piece again, what would I do differently?” When I finished Bad Hare Day (see the earlier post) I thought that I wish I had made the fox more…

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Typewriter Desk

May 13, 2019

private collection I wondered if I could do marquetry on a tambour and make the tambour slats relatively inconspicuous. The picture would need to have the majority of the grain running with the slats. I wanted to do a desk and what would have been more obvious to put on a desk than an old…

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Roentgen panel

May 13, 2019

Austrian Museum of Applied Arts The is one of two wall panels made in the David Roentgen workshops for Charles of Lorraine. This one is titled The Magnanimity of Scipio. It is dated 1779. The designer was Januarius Zick and the principle marqueteur was Michael Rummer. The truly remarkable thing about this work is its…

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Nathan Lombard

May 7, 2019

Winterthur Museum, Delaware Nathan Lombard Early American furniture is not known for elaborate use of marquetry. Decorative elements were more likely to have been carved. But on occasion tasteful inlay was used to enhance a special piece of furniture. Nathan Lombard was a cabinetmaker working in Massachusetts at the end of the 18th century. One…

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Jewelry boxes

April 29, 2019

My first experiences with marquetry was making jewelry boxes. They had simple marquetry pictures for the tops. the boxes themselves were solid woods. I marketed them through the craft show circuit. I had about a dozen floral designs and i would change the background woods to expand the variety. There were very basic boxes with…

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Founding Fathers Writing Desk

April 22, 2019

private collection Founding Fathers Writing Desk A few years ago I was invited to participate in a unique exhibition. A company in Virginia had been collecting timbers from historic estates and plantations. Mount Vernon, Monticello, Montpelier, etc. About a dozen woodworkers were asked to make something from some of the wood. I chose to do…

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Jim MacDonald Guitar

April 19, 2019

I have known Jim MacDonald for decades and have admired the guitars he makes using marquetry decoration. Here is a unique instrument with a bit of nostalgia for the late 1960's. He has created a still-life with album covers (I used to have that Jimi Hendrix record), part of the guitar, the strap, and the…

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Telephone Cabinet

April 15, 2019

Museum of Fine Art, Boston, MA Someone asked where my work might be found in public collections: Telephone Cabinet (1993) has two pairs of doors with a life sized self-portrait covering most of the surface. My intent was to build something the size of an old telephone booth. I imagine that it won’t be long…

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Bone Voyage

April 12, 2019

private collection Bone Voyage Commissions are collaborations with the client. My hope is to always personalize a project for the owner. I want to know what their interests are and I want to make something special for them. About twenty years ago I was contacted by a woman who told me she liked my work…

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Ruhlmann Corner Cabinet

April 8, 2019

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond Jacques-Émile Ruhlmann Jacques-Émile Ruhlmann is many a woodworker’s favorite designer. His pieces are sophisticated and filled with interesting details. His name is almost synonymous with Art Deco furniture. Ruhlmann was born in 1879. As he was growing up Art Nouveau, with its use of sensuous curves, dominated French design.…

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Writing desk

April 5, 2019

private collection Oyster Writing Desk “Oyster work” in woodworking is a veneering technique where a limb of a tree with heartwood-sapwood contrast is sawn into cross-sectional pieces. If the limb is cut perpendicular to the growth the pieces will be roughly circular. If the limb is cut at an angle the pattern of the grain…

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Pierre Golle table

March 28, 2019

Metropolitan Museum, New York Pierre Golle In the seventeenth century France was among the real powers in Europe. Wealth was flowing into the country from colonies and there was an aristocracy anxious to own objects of luxury. Talented craftsmen from other parts of Europe emigrated hoping to find a clientele for special objects. Pierre Golle…

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Tiger Cabinet

March 25, 2019

private collection Many years ago I acquired some birdseye figured satinwood. I thought it was one of the most beautiful veneers I had ever seen. Every time I would pull it out and think of using it I would always say to myself, "No, this needs to be saved for something really special." Finally I…

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Charles Spindler screen

March 18, 2019

Musée d'Art Moderne, Strasbourg, France Charles Spindler My introduction to the craft of marquetry came from The Art and Practice of Marquetry written by W.A. Lincoln. There were a handful of black and white photos and one that caught my eye was a village scene by Paul Spindler. A lot of marquetry has a paint-by-…

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Floral Cabinet on a Stand

March 15, 2019

Milwaukee Art Museum This floral cabinet was purchased by the Milwaukee Art Museum in 2002. I had been invited to be part of an exhibit of three American marquetry furniture makers from three different centuries. The earliest maker was Nathan Lombard, an 18th century cabinetmaker from Massachusetts. The other was Peter Glass, who had emigrated…

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Fox and Geese

March 10, 2019

Fox and Geese The cabinet I have been working on has now been lacquered and the richness of the wood can now be appreciated. The main wood is Macassar ebony with it's beautiful stripy grain. The red woods of the fox also have come alive. The marquetry challenge was to find the right tones for…

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Ernest Gimson

March 8, 2019

Leicester Museums Ernest Gimson English crafts in the late 19th century were heavily influenced by the writing and philosophy of John Ruskin and William Morris. Honest craftwork was to be an antidote to the de-humanization of industrial labor. Morris’s company designed and made wall-coverings and fabrics. They also did an occasional piece of furniture. Morris…

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Louis Majorelle

March 1, 2019

private collection Louis Majorelle Nancy, in eastern France, was a hotbed of marquetry furniture at the turn of the twentieth century. It was home to Emile Gallé (see earlier post), as well as another important designer of marquetry furniture, Louis Majorelle. Majorelle had a significant business and employed about 250 people in the factory. Marquetry…

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New York Times article

February 28, 2019

From the New York Times (1989) I was recently doing a little housekeeping and attempting to "uncluttered" a bit. I came across a box of newspaper and magazine clippings. I wonder why I had ever thought to save most of them. And then I found this- it was the last page of the New York…

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Fall front desk

February 25, 2019

Private collection Trompe l'oeil Cat Desk In 1984 I got the chance to go on a little tour of Italy looking at intarsia panels with an American couple. They had written an article on the subject that caught my eye. It was in Scientific American, of all places. They wrote about perspective drawing and how…

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Antonio Barili self-portrait

February 20, 2019

Antonio Barili As I was putting together my book, A Marquetry Odyssey, I knew that there was a handful of pictures that had to be included. One of them was the self-portrait of Antonio Barili. Barili was born in Siena in1453. He was a layperson but did his important work decorating churches in Tuscany. In…

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Jan van Mekeren

February 18, 2019

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam Jan van Mekeren One can associate Dutch culture with flowers. So check out this cabinet in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam by Jan van Mekeren from around 1700. The doors have the two magnificent bouquets. There are slightly smaller bouquets on the sides. But that’s not all… there are flowers on the horizontal bands.…

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Bad Hare Day

February 15, 2019

Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, DC Someone asked where my work might be found in public collections: Bad Hare Day (2007) was purchased for the collection of the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian. The cabinet is made of Macassar ebony, Walnut, and marquetry. The form is elliptical. The three rabbits start far around the left…

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Fox and Geese cabinet

February 9, 2019

Fox and Geese Cabinet The primary wood for this cabinet is Macassar ebony. The solid wood that frames the panels is walnut. There is a lifting top on the left that will have a space for a printer.

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Marquetry goose

February 9, 2019

Marquetry goose The same process is used to put the goose together.

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Into the press

February 9, 2019

Pressing the panel The marquetry is glued to a pre-bent panel. Five layers of 1/8" plywood were bent in a two part form. This fixes the desired curve. The panel is trimmed square and then the marquetry is carefully aligned with the panel and put back in the press with the glue.

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Marquetry taped

February 9, 2019

Marquetry fox taped Now the image is facing right. You can now see why the work proceeds from the back side as a mirror image. The tape obscures the lines where the glue side shows all the cuts clearly. This part is now ready for gluing to a thicker panel.

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Marquetry fox

February 9, 2019

Marquetry fox cut Now the fox has been cut into the background and set in. This picture is now ready to glue to a panel.

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Marquetry fox complete

February 9, 2019

Marquetry fox complete The whole fox has been put together and is ready to be cut into a Macassar ebony background. A hole will be drilled on the perimeter and the entire animal will be circumnavigated. So the hole in the ebony is produced by the cutting of the fox.   Note that the fox…

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Marquetry fox

February 9, 2019

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Fox and Geese drawing

February 9, 2019

Fox and Geese drawing   Every marquetry picture starts with a pencil drawing. I'm not particularly concerned with colors, although i do have a basic idea of what woods i will be using when I start to cut the marquetry.

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André- Charles Boulle

February 8, 2019

J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA André- Charles Boulle When asked to name a famous furniture designer we in the English speaking world might say “Chippendale”. However, if you asked someone in France the same question, the answer might be “André-Charles Boulle”. André- Charles Boulle (1642- 1732) was the most celebrated ébeniste of his…

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Fra Giovanni da Verona

February 5, 2019

Monte Oliveto Maggiore Monastery Fra Giovanni da Verona My introduction to marquetry came from a book by William A. Lincoln, The Art and Practice of Marquetry. I learned the basic technique of cutting pictures by following the instructions. There were a handful of black and white photos of historic pieces in the book and the…

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Marquetry of Émile Gallé

February 1, 2019

The work of Émile Gallé was what first attracted me to marquetry. Gallé (1846-1904) is best known as a designer of art glass. However, he also ran a furniture factory in the city of Nancy that specialized in marquetry. When learning marquetry I tried to emulate the floral designs that Gallé had popularized. Gallé’s business…

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Nasturtiums

February 1, 2019

Someone asked where my work might be found in public collections: In January my sideboard buffet, Nasturtiums, was acquired by the Philadelphia Museum of Art. This is especially pleasing to me as I am a Pennsylvania native and PMA is one of America’s great art museums. The piece features stylized marquetry using wood, brass, copper,…

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Three Mile Island desk and chair

February 1, 2019

Someone asked where they might find my work in public collections:   The Museum of Fine Art in Boston acquired Three Mile Island Desk and Chair a few years ago. It was made in 2004. The base of the desk mimics the twin cooling towers at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. These were…

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TWO BLONDES AND A BRIOCHE (AT THE BISTRO)

July 15, 2016

The tape must be scrapped and sanded off the panels. This is a job that must be done carefully to both keep the panel flat and not go through the veneer. This is when you finally get to see the picture in the right orientation.

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GLUE UP

July 14, 2016

The panels are individually glued to MDF. In this case I have gone to a shop that has a large hot press that is big enough to accommodate the marquetry.

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THE PANELS TRIMMED

July 14, 2016

The rectangles need to be trimmed to slightly over their finished size to facilitate gluing. Small wood blocks will be glued to the edges to “key” the board to the marquetry.

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THE MARQUETRY PANELS

July 13, 2016

The three marquetry panels, complete and ready for assembly.

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BODY

July 13, 2016

The body is finished and ready to put into the background.

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TORSO AND HEAD

July 13, 2016

The picture has evolved and the upper body is now complete. The parts can still be separated to facilitate the assembly in the bigger panel.

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MAKING THE FACE

July 13, 2016

The face is done. I have changed the woman from brunette to blonde. I wanted more contrast with her hair and the background and I wanted her to match the golden retriever that is in the final design.

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ADDING ELEMENTS

July 13, 2016

Parts of the picture are worked on as units and then they cab be combined into larger elements. They are taped together with masking tape so they can be separated. This insures that the marquetry is small enough to cut on the scroll saw and doesn’t become too cumbersome.

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MAKING TWO BLONDES- marquetry cutting

July 13, 2016

The drawing is made full size, in this case working from a photograph. The drawings is copied with tracing paper and then using carbon paper the lines can be put on the individual pieces of veneer. The picture then develops piece by piece.

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