| Blog series by shipwright | updated 04-15-2017 01:02 AM | 6 parts | 25982 reads | 163 comments total |
Part 1: The First Half has Arrived
In a previous blog I wrote about my visit to Les Fils de J. George in Paris and included a video of “la scie au bois montant” and my thoughts about the adventure. I have been patiently waiting since I arrived home for the arrival of my purchases. They were shipped in two packages and the second somehow managed to get itself three days behind the first. Every day I check the Colissimo website to track the packages and yesterday the word was (in French of course) that the first pack...
Part 2: The "Good Stuff" is here... the second package
I’ve been patiently waiting for the rest of my veneer to arrive from France so we can leave for AZ. Well it arrived today and we leave in the morning. As promised here are the photos. WARNING: A lot of photos of pretty veneer, you may want to pass on this one. The second package. Mocutaiba (Tiger Ear, Pao Santo) Douka (Makore) Espenille (West Indies Satinwood) Amourette (Snakewood) Gaboon Ebony Holly S...
Part 3: Shop Sawn Pepperwood Veneer (not fron France)
A while back we had a dead pepper tree (Schinus Molle) removed from our Az. back yard and I saved some pieces. Well today I had a log jam at the veneer press so while I was waiting for glue to set I made a Q & D log cutting jig and started to make some little pepperwood boards. OK, so boards are fine but I wondered if I could cut 1/16” veneer to match the thickness of my stock from France. The machine is my 11” ShopSmith bandsaw and the blade is a 1/4” 4 t...
Part 4: Completing the Inventory
When I decided to make the change to thick (1/16” or 1.5mm) veneer for my marquetry I knew it was a big and expensive step. The first part was to establish an inventory of exotic sawn veneer from Les Fils de J George in Paris but that wasn’t the end of it. Before I made that trip and purchased that material I was aware of the thick, albeit sliced, veneer available at Certainly Wood right here in North America. Their selection is not much in the exotics but very good in the basic d...
Part 5: Ever Seen $500 Worth of Cow Bones?
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well this one is more like half a thousand dollars. Yes, by the time you convert euros to Canadian dollars and pay the shipping from France that is about how it works out. You may not think this is a very good haul of cow bones for the price but in fact the two bundles in the middle were thrown in free with my order so in fact it could be worse. Actually I am very happy with my new purchase and can’t wait to use some of this material. ...
Part 6: Gold in the Garden
For the past few months I have been tracking down members of the Barberry family (Berberidaceae) for its amazing yellow wood. One member (Berberis vulgaris I think) was the material used for the yellow flowers in classic French marquetry.Anyway, last fall I was able to get a few small pieces of Agarita (Mahonia trifoliolata) from LJ Jerry (nubsnstubs) in Tucson and I used it in the marquetry I did over the winter. It was an amazing colour and just to top it off, it was luminescent under black...
