[AandCstyle]

Ten days of cutting .... but the end motifs are done

With the design decided and the drawer front marquetry installed the time finally came to tackle the cutting of the end motifs. This is by far the most ambitious motif I have ever attempted and I can say in all honesty, I wasn't all that sure I could do it.

I decided to use the painting in wood technique as the motif lends itself to the style and there were to be only two copies. I made up a packet with two layers of Poplar face to face, two layers of Ebony face to face and three layers of basswood waster to carry the other components. The two Ebony layers were made up of the previously fitted drawer side components veneer taped together. The flower and basket parts were added to the wasters and were Araracanga, Bloodwood, and Curly Maple.

Very careful alignment of the layers to each other, and even more importantly to the pattern, was absolutely essential.

Then, at last, it was time to drill a hole (three actually) and start cutting.

This is the first piece that I cut. What you see is the bottom plywood piece from the cut placed in the top plywood hole. This is a check that I repeat often during stack cutting to be sure I'm not getting conical.

As I cut, I assembled the parts in a drawer, closely fitted because there were so many tiny parts, many that looked very much alike. This was quite scary as the picture grew because all it would take would be to bump the tray and I would be spending hours trying to reassemble the parts. I took lots of pictures, one every time I moved a group of parts from my working tray to the storage tray.

.... You get the idea.

Finally, after ten days and ~ 40 hours of cutting, it was done and I could at last open the packet and remove the backgrounds. This meant I could move the "loose" assemblies into the enclosure of the Ebony grounds and breathe a small sigh of relief.

At this point, if you are Patrice or Patrick, you shade all the pieces and then assemble on a paper mounting board with HHG but since I'm not and I'm nowhere near as confident in my shading, I pre-assembled on clear adhesive backed shelf liner. This gives me a chance to look at my motifs and make changes if I want and it also allows me to remove the pieces, one at a time, sand shade them, and replace them. I like to be able to see how the shading looks and maybe adjust my technique a little as I go.

Here are the two motifs as first assembled.

Here I have changed some of the flower colors. I had three colors for each part and only needed two assemblies so I could make changes after seeing the finished pictures.

And after taking all that time to cut, shading only took about four hours for the first one. This photo shows dramatically how much difference can be made by sand shading.

All and all, I am very pleased to have gotten this far without losing a single tiny piece and with no serious mishaps. It is by no means perfect but I feel like I have crossed a line in my marquetry journey with this cut.

I still have to shade the second one, mount them on paper mounting boards, fill with black mastic, and separate them into threes before they get near the drawer sides, but I feel like the hardest part is done ...... for this part.

Thanks for looking in.

Paul

Wow! Incredible! Formidable! Magnifique! Exceptionnel! And I like it.

 

[tomd]

Ten days of cutting .... but the end motifs are done

With the design decided and the drawer front marquetry installed the time finally came to tackle the cutting of the end motifs. This is by far the most ambitious motif I have ever attempted and I can say in all honesty, I wasn't all that sure I could do it.

I decided to use the painting in wood technique as the motif lends itself to the style and there were to be only two copies. I made up a packet with two layers of Poplar face to face, two layers of Ebony face to face and three layers of basswood waster to carry the other components. The two Ebony layers were made up of the previously fitted drawer side components veneer taped together. The flower and basket parts were added to the wasters and were Araracanga, Bloodwood, and Curly Maple.

Very careful alignment of the layers to each other, and even more importantly to the pattern, was absolutely essential.

Then, at last, it was time to drill a hole (three actually) and start cutting.

This is the first piece that I cut. What you see is the bottom plywood piece from the cut placed in the top plywood hole. This is a check that I repeat often during stack cutting to be sure I'm not getting conical.

As I cut, I assembled the parts in a drawer, closely fitted because there were so many tiny parts, many that looked very much alike. This was quite scary as the picture grew because all it would take would be to bump the tray and I would be spending hours trying to reassemble the parts. I took lots of pictures, one every time I moved a group of parts from my working tray to the storage tray.

.... You get the idea.

Finally, after ten days and ~ 40 hours of cutting, it was done and I could at last open the packet and remove the backgrounds. This meant I could move the "loose" assemblies into the enclosure of the Ebony grounds and breathe a small sigh of relief.

At this point, if you are Patrice or Patrick, you shade all the pieces and then assemble on a paper mounting board with HHG but since I'm not and I'm nowhere near as confident in my shading, I pre-assembled on clear adhesive backed shelf liner. This gives me a chance to look at my motifs and make changes if I want and it also allows me to remove the pieces, one at a time, sand shade them, and replace them. I like to be able to see how the shading looks and maybe adjust my technique a little as I go.

Here are the two motifs as first assembled.

Here I have changed some of the flower colors. I had three colors for each part and only needed two assemblies so I could make changes after seeing the finished pictures.

And after taking all that time to cut, shading only took about four hours for the first one. This photo shows dramatically how much difference can be made by sand shading.

All and all, I am very pleased to have gotten this far without losing a single tiny piece and with no serious mishaps. It is by no means perfect but I feel like I have crossed a line in my marquetry journey with this cut.

I still have to shade the second one, mount them on paper mounting boards, fill with black mastic, and separate them into threes before they get near the drawer sides, but I feel like the hardest part is done ...... for this part.

Thanks for looking in.

Paul

Beautiful work Paul, thanks for the photos it made it all come together. This is some project. I think you have reached a new level in you marquetry skills.

 

[MNedman]

Ten days of cutting .... but the end motifs are done

With the design decided and the drawer front marquetry installed the time finally came to tackle the cutting of the end motifs. This is by far the most ambitious motif I have ever attempted and I can say in all honesty, I wasn't all that sure I could do it.

I decided to use the painting in wood technique as the motif lends itself to the style and there were to be only two copies. I made up a packet with two layers of Poplar face to face, two layers of Ebony face to face and three layers of basswood waster to carry the other components. The two Ebony layers were made up of the previously fitted drawer side components veneer taped together. The flower and basket parts were added to the wasters and were Araracanga, Bloodwood, and Curly Maple.

Very careful alignment of the layers to each other, and even more importantly to the pattern, was absolutely essential.

Then, at last, it was time to drill a hole (three actually) and start cutting.

This is the first piece that I cut. What you see is the bottom plywood piece from the cut placed in the top plywood hole. This is a check that I repeat often during stack cutting to be sure I'm not getting conical.

As I cut, I assembled the parts in a drawer, closely fitted because there were so many tiny parts, many that looked very much alike. This was quite scary as the picture grew because all it would take would be to bump the tray and I would be spending hours trying to reassemble the parts. I took lots of pictures, one every time I moved a group of parts from my working tray to the storage tray.

.... You get the idea.

Finally, after ten days and ~ 40 hours of cutting, it was done and I could at last open the packet and remove the backgrounds. This meant I could move the "loose" assemblies into the enclosure of the Ebony grounds and breathe a small sigh of relief.

At this point, if you are Patrice or Patrick, you shade all the pieces and then assemble on a paper mounting board with HHG but since I'm not and I'm nowhere near as confident in my shading, I pre-assembled on clear adhesive backed shelf liner. This gives me a chance to look at my motifs and make changes if I want and it also allows me to remove the pieces, one at a time, sand shade them, and replace them. I like to be able to see how the shading looks and maybe adjust my technique a little as I go.

Here are the two motifs as first assembled.

Here I have changed some of the flower colors. I had three colors for each part and only needed two assemblies so I could make changes after seeing the finished pictures.

And after taking all that time to cut, shading only took about four hours for the first one. This photo shows dramatically how much difference can be made by sand shading.

All and all, I am very pleased to have gotten this far without losing a single tiny piece and with no serious mishaps. It is by no means perfect but I feel like I have crossed a line in my marquetry journey with this cut.

I still have to shade the second one, mount them on paper mounting boards, fill with black mastic, and separate them into threes before they get near the drawer sides, but I feel like the hardest part is done ...... for this part.

Thanks for looking in.

Paul

Holy Smokes Paul…this is work on par with the original I would say. What a difference the shading makes 40 hrs of cutting is quite an undertaking. Can't wait to see what you come up with for the top!

 

[Kentuk55]

Ten days of cutting .... but the end motifs are done

With the design decided and the drawer front marquetry installed the time finally came to tackle the cutting of the end motifs. This is by far the most ambitious motif I have ever attempted and I can say in all honesty, I wasn't all that sure I could do it.

I decided to use the painting in wood technique as the motif lends itself to the style and there were to be only two copies. I made up a packet with two layers of Poplar face to face, two layers of Ebony face to face and three layers of basswood waster to carry the other components. The two Ebony layers were made up of the previously fitted drawer side components veneer taped together. The flower and basket parts were added to the wasters and were Araracanga, Bloodwood, and Curly Maple.

Very careful alignment of the layers to each other, and even more importantly to the pattern, was absolutely essential.

Then, at last, it was time to drill a hole (three actually) and start cutting.

This is the first piece that I cut. What you see is the bottom plywood piece from the cut placed in the top plywood hole. This is a check that I repeat often during stack cutting to be sure I'm not getting conical.

As I cut, I assembled the parts in a drawer, closely fitted because there were so many tiny parts, many that looked very much alike. This was quite scary as the picture grew because all it would take would be to bump the tray and I would be spending hours trying to reassemble the parts. I took lots of pictures, one every time I moved a group of parts from my working tray to the storage tray.

.... You get the idea.

Finally, after ten days and ~ 40 hours of cutting, it was done and I could at last open the packet and remove the backgrounds. This meant I could move the "loose" assemblies into the enclosure of the Ebony grounds and breathe a small sigh of relief.

At this point, if you are Patrice or Patrick, you shade all the pieces and then assemble on a paper mounting board with HHG but since I'm not and I'm nowhere near as confident in my shading, I pre-assembled on clear adhesive backed shelf liner. This gives me a chance to look at my motifs and make changes if I want and it also allows me to remove the pieces, one at a time, sand shade them, and replace them. I like to be able to see how the shading looks and maybe adjust my technique a little as I go.

Here are the two motifs as first assembled.

Here I have changed some of the flower colors. I had three colors for each part and only needed two assemblies so I could make changes after seeing the finished pictures.

And after taking all that time to cut, shading only took about four hours for the first one. This photo shows dramatically how much difference can be made by sand shading.

All and all, I am very pleased to have gotten this far without losing a single tiny piece and with no serious mishaps. It is by no means perfect but I feel like I have crossed a line in my marquetry journey with this cut.

I still have to shade the second one, mount them on paper mounting boards, fill with black mastic, and separate them into threes before they get near the drawer sides, but I feel like the hardest part is done ...... for this part.

Thanks for looking in.

Paul

I'm just speechless Paul. All's I'll say is, you're an amazing artisan!

 

[stefang]

Ten days of cutting .... but the end motifs are done

With the design decided and the drawer front marquetry installed the time finally came to tackle the cutting of the end motifs. This is by far the most ambitious motif I have ever attempted and I can say in all honesty, I wasn't all that sure I could do it.

I decided to use the painting in wood technique as the motif lends itself to the style and there were to be only two copies. I made up a packet with two layers of Poplar face to face, two layers of Ebony face to face and three layers of basswood waster to carry the other components. The two Ebony layers were made up of the previously fitted drawer side components veneer taped together. The flower and basket parts were added to the wasters and were Araracanga, Bloodwood, and Curly Maple.

Very careful alignment of the layers to each other, and even more importantly to the pattern, was absolutely essential.

Then, at last, it was time to drill a hole (three actually) and start cutting.

This is the first piece that I cut. What you see is the bottom plywood piece from the cut placed in the top plywood hole. This is a check that I repeat often during stack cutting to be sure I'm not getting conical.

As I cut, I assembled the parts in a drawer, closely fitted because there were so many tiny parts, many that looked very much alike. This was quite scary as the picture grew because all it would take would be to bump the tray and I would be spending hours trying to reassemble the parts. I took lots of pictures, one every time I moved a group of parts from my working tray to the storage tray.

.... You get the idea.

Finally, after ten days and ~ 40 hours of cutting, it was done and I could at last open the packet and remove the backgrounds. This meant I could move the "loose" assemblies into the enclosure of the Ebony grounds and breathe a small sigh of relief.

At this point, if you are Patrice or Patrick, you shade all the pieces and then assemble on a paper mounting board with HHG but since I'm not and I'm nowhere near as confident in my shading, I pre-assembled on clear adhesive backed shelf liner. This gives me a chance to look at my motifs and make changes if I want and it also allows me to remove the pieces, one at a time, sand shade them, and replace them. I like to be able to see how the shading looks and maybe adjust my technique a little as I go.

Here are the two motifs as first assembled.

Here I have changed some of the flower colors. I had three colors for each part and only needed two assemblies so I could make changes after seeing the finished pictures.

And after taking all that time to cut, shading only took about four hours for the first one. This photo shows dramatically how much difference can be made by sand shading.

All and all, I am very pleased to have gotten this far without losing a single tiny piece and with no serious mishaps. It is by no means perfect but I feel like I have crossed a line in my marquetry journey with this cut.

I still have to shade the second one, mount them on paper mounting boards, fill with black mastic, and separate them into threes before they get near the drawer sides, but I feel like the hardest part is done ...... for this part.

Thanks for looking in.

Paul

These are amazing pieces of work Paul and they very clearly illustrate what you have accomplished since you started with marquetry such a short time ago. The sand shading here looks to me like the best you've done so far in spite of your past shading work being of such a high caliber already. All very inspiring!!

 

[tinnman65]

Ten days of cutting .... but the end motifs are done

With the design decided and the drawer front marquetry installed the time finally came to tackle the cutting of the end motifs. This is by far the most ambitious motif I have ever attempted and I can say in all honesty, I wasn't all that sure I could do it.

I decided to use the painting in wood technique as the motif lends itself to the style and there were to be only two copies. I made up a packet with two layers of Poplar face to face, two layers of Ebony face to face and three layers of basswood waster to carry the other components. The two Ebony layers were made up of the previously fitted drawer side components veneer taped together. The flower and basket parts were added to the wasters and were Araracanga, Bloodwood, and Curly Maple.

Very careful alignment of the layers to each other, and even more importantly to the pattern, was absolutely essential.

Then, at last, it was time to drill a hole (three actually) and start cutting.

This is the first piece that I cut. What you see is the bottom plywood piece from the cut placed in the top plywood hole. This is a check that I repeat often during stack cutting to be sure I'm not getting conical.

As I cut, I assembled the parts in a drawer, closely fitted because there were so many tiny parts, many that looked very much alike. This was quite scary as the picture grew because all it would take would be to bump the tray and I would be spending hours trying to reassemble the parts. I took lots of pictures, one every time I moved a group of parts from my working tray to the storage tray.

.... You get the idea.

Finally, after ten days and ~ 40 hours of cutting, it was done and I could at last open the packet and remove the backgrounds. This meant I could move the "loose" assemblies into the enclosure of the Ebony grounds and breathe a small sigh of relief.

At this point, if you are Patrice or Patrick, you shade all the pieces and then assemble on a paper mounting board with HHG but since I'm not and I'm nowhere near as confident in my shading, I pre-assembled on clear adhesive backed shelf liner. This gives me a chance to look at my motifs and make changes if I want and it also allows me to remove the pieces, one at a time, sand shade them, and replace them. I like to be able to see how the shading looks and maybe adjust my technique a little as I go.

Here are the two motifs as first assembled.

Here I have changed some of the flower colors. I had three colors for each part and only needed two assemblies so I could make changes after seeing the finished pictures.

And after taking all that time to cut, shading only took about four hours for the first one. This photo shows dramatically how much difference can be made by sand shading.

All and all, I am very pleased to have gotten this far without losing a single tiny piece and with no serious mishaps. It is by no means perfect but I feel like I have crossed a line in my marquetry journey with this cut.

I still have to shade the second one, mount them on paper mounting boards, fill with black mastic, and separate them into threes before they get near the drawer sides, but I feel like the hardest part is done ...... for this part.

Thanks for looking in.

Paul

Wow Paul, I finally have had a chance to look at this as it was sitting in my email for a few days. All I can say is I agree you have crossed a line in your marquetry journey. Beautiful!

 

[PERLarryC]

Ten days of cutting .... but the end motifs are done

With the design decided and the drawer front marquetry installed the time finally came to tackle the cutting of the end motifs. This is by far the most ambitious motif I have ever attempted and I can say in all honesty, I wasn't all that sure I could do it.

I decided to use the painting in wood technique as the motif lends itself to the style and there were to be only two copies. I made up a packet with two layers of Poplar face to face, two layers of Ebony face to face and three layers of basswood waster to carry the other components. The two Ebony layers were made up of the previously fitted drawer side components veneer taped together. The flower and basket parts were added to the wasters and were Araracanga, Bloodwood, and Curly Maple.

Very careful alignment of the layers to each other, and even more importantly to the pattern, was absolutely essential.

Then, at last, it was time to drill a hole (three actually) and start cutting.

This is the first piece that I cut. What you see is the bottom plywood piece from the cut placed in the top plywood hole. This is a check that I repeat often during stack cutting to be sure I'm not getting conical.

As I cut, I assembled the parts in a drawer, closely fitted because there were so many tiny parts, many that looked very much alike. This was quite scary as the picture grew because all it would take would be to bump the tray and I would be spending hours trying to reassemble the parts. I took lots of pictures, one every time I moved a group of parts from my working tray to the storage tray.

.... You get the idea.

Finally, after ten days and ~ 40 hours of cutting, it was done and I could at last open the packet and remove the backgrounds. This meant I could move the "loose" assemblies into the enclosure of the Ebony grounds and breathe a small sigh of relief.

At this point, if you are Patrice or Patrick, you shade all the pieces and then assemble on a paper mounting board with HHG but since I'm not and I'm nowhere near as confident in my shading, I pre-assembled on clear adhesive backed shelf liner. This gives me a chance to look at my motifs and make changes if I want and it also allows me to remove the pieces, one at a time, sand shade them, and replace them. I like to be able to see how the shading looks and maybe adjust my technique a little as I go.

Here are the two motifs as first assembled.

Here I have changed some of the flower colors. I had three colors for each part and only needed two assemblies so I could make changes after seeing the finished pictures.

And after taking all that time to cut, shading only took about four hours for the first one. This photo shows dramatically how much difference can be made by sand shading.

All and all, I am very pleased to have gotten this far without losing a single tiny piece and with no serious mishaps. It is by no means perfect but I feel like I have crossed a line in my marquetry journey with this cut.

I still have to shade the second one, mount them on paper mounting boards, fill with black mastic, and separate them into threes before they get near the drawer sides, but I feel like the hardest part is done ...... for this part.

Thanks for looking in.

Paul

A while ago you didn't think that you could do it. I think that you can do anything that you set your mind to. This is beautiful work.

 

[shipwright]

Mounting the end motifs

First off, here's a photo that shows why I like to use self adhesive shelf paper for initial assembly. It allows me to set the piece up with equal kerfs, (painting in wood and Boulle styles) sub in flower colors as explained in the last segment, and see my shading as it progresses. In the photo you can see one of the pieces has been removed and shaded (lying on the plexiglas, top) and you can see the progress of the shading in the motif. The low tack adhesive makes this removal and replacement easy.

When I'm finished shading and I'm happy with the composition, I cover the glue side with masking tape, flip it over and remove the film from the show side.

Then I take the whole thing and mount it in one piece on (French) kraft paper with hot hide glue. After pressing (moderate pressure) and letting the glue dry, I remove the tape.

Here the piece has been filled with black mastic. (HHG, fine sawdust, black poster paint powder)

Here comes the scary part. Before I assembled the ebony layer of the packet, I cut the panels for the centre drawers to exact dimension. I then carefully aligned the layers in the packet. Now I have to separate the panels at exactly the lines of division in the ebony layer.

As it turns out, I got the cuts done pretty much as I had hoped and heaved a huge sigh of relief. The relief lasted a few minutes before I realized that the really scary part was next. When you glue these to the substrate, you don't get to see them so you label and mark everything you can think of, dry fit ten times and then suck it up and apply glue and press them. If you get one upside down (or an eighth of an inch too high or low or left or right, or crooked), there is really no way to fix the problem. ....... hence the mulitple dry fits, marking etc.
The picture below looks pretty ordinary but represents a night of poor sleep, two actually as I did the other side the next day.

To make a long story short, I got away with it this time. At my age this is firmly in the risk taking field as I seem to make little "slip of the mind" mistakes more often than I used to. But I made it this time so on to the next challenge.

Here's how they looked all mounted on the drawers and out in the Arizona sun.

You may notice that the 2" wide "bump out" strip looks a little bare in plain black. Well …....... be patient.

This is a picture of part of a page in "Masterpieces of Marquetry"

With that I'll sign off for tonight and get a good sleep.

Thanks for looking in.

Paul

 

[TheFridge]

Mounting the end motifs

First off, here's a photo that shows why I like to use self adhesive shelf paper for initial assembly. It allows me to set the piece up with equal kerfs, (painting in wood and Boulle styles) sub in flower colors as explained in the last segment, and see my shading as it progresses. In the photo you can see one of the pieces has been removed and shaded (lying on the plexiglas, top) and you can see the progress of the shading in the motif. The low tack adhesive makes this removal and replacement easy.

When I'm finished shading and I'm happy with the composition, I cover the glue side with masking tape, flip it over and remove the film from the show side.

Then I take the whole thing and mount it in one piece on (French) kraft paper with hot hide glue. After pressing (moderate pressure) and letting the glue dry, I remove the tape.

Here the piece has been filled with black mastic. (HHG, fine sawdust, black poster paint powder)

Here comes the scary part. Before I assembled the ebony layer of the packet, I cut the panels for the centre drawers to exact dimension. I then carefully aligned the layers in the packet. Now I have to separate the panels at exactly the lines of division in the ebony layer.

As it turns out, I got the cuts done pretty much as I had hoped and heaved a huge sigh of relief. The relief lasted a few minutes before I realized that the really scary part was next. When you glue these to the substrate, you don't get to see them so you label and mark everything you can think of, dry fit ten times and then suck it up and apply glue and press them. If you get one upside down (or an eighth of an inch too high or low or left or right, or crooked), there is really no way to fix the problem. ....... hence the mulitple dry fits, marking etc.
The picture below looks pretty ordinary but represents a night of poor sleep, two actually as I did the other side the next day.

To make a long story short, I got away with it this time. At my age this is firmly in the risk taking field as I seem to make little "slip of the mind" mistakes more often than I used to. But I made it this time so on to the next challenge.

Here's how they looked all mounted on the drawers and out in the Arizona sun.

You may notice that the 2" wide "bump out" strip looks a little bare in plain black. Well …....... be patient.

This is a picture of part of a page in "Masterpieces of Marquetry"

With that I'll sign off for tonight and get a good sleep.

Thanks for looking in.

Paul

Excellent work bud. Fit for a king. Or queen?

 

[Druid]

Mounting the end motifs

First off, here's a photo that shows why I like to use self adhesive shelf paper for initial assembly. It allows me to set the piece up with equal kerfs, (painting in wood and Boulle styles) sub in flower colors as explained in the last segment, and see my shading as it progresses. In the photo you can see one of the pieces has been removed and shaded (lying on the plexiglas, top) and you can see the progress of the shading in the motif. The low tack adhesive makes this removal and replacement easy.

When I'm finished shading and I'm happy with the composition, I cover the glue side with masking tape, flip it over and remove the film from the show side.

Then I take the whole thing and mount it in one piece on (French) kraft paper with hot hide glue. After pressing (moderate pressure) and letting the glue dry, I remove the tape.

Here the piece has been filled with black mastic. (HHG, fine sawdust, black poster paint powder)

Here comes the scary part. Before I assembled the ebony layer of the packet, I cut the panels for the centre drawers to exact dimension. I then carefully aligned the layers in the packet. Now I have to separate the panels at exactly the lines of division in the ebony layer.

As it turns out, I got the cuts done pretty much as I had hoped and heaved a huge sigh of relief. The relief lasted a few minutes before I realized that the really scary part was next. When you glue these to the substrate, you don't get to see them so you label and mark everything you can think of, dry fit ten times and then suck it up and apply glue and press them. If you get one upside down (or an eighth of an inch too high or low or left or right, or crooked), there is really no way to fix the problem. ....... hence the mulitple dry fits, marking etc.
The picture below looks pretty ordinary but represents a night of poor sleep, two actually as I did the other side the next day.

To make a long story short, I got away with it this time. At my age this is firmly in the risk taking field as I seem to make little "slip of the mind" mistakes more often than I used to. But I made it this time so on to the next challenge.

Here's how they looked all mounted on the drawers and out in the Arizona sun.

You may notice that the 2" wide "bump out" strip looks a little bare in plain black. Well …....... be patient.

This is a picture of part of a page in "Masterpieces of Marquetry"

With that I'll sign off for tonight and get a good sleep.

Thanks for looking in.

Paul

Seems like you lost sleep for no reason. Looks wonderful Paul.

 

[JoeLyddon]

Mounting the end motifs

First off, here's a photo that shows why I like to use self adhesive shelf paper for initial assembly. It allows me to set the piece up with equal kerfs, (painting in wood and Boulle styles) sub in flower colors as explained in the last segment, and see my shading as it progresses. In the photo you can see one of the pieces has been removed and shaded (lying on the plexiglas, top) and you can see the progress of the shading in the motif. The low tack adhesive makes this removal and replacement easy.

When I'm finished shading and I'm happy with the composition, I cover the glue side with masking tape, flip it over and remove the film from the show side.

Then I take the whole thing and mount it in one piece on (French) kraft paper with hot hide glue. After pressing (moderate pressure) and letting the glue dry, I remove the tape.

Here the piece has been filled with black mastic. (HHG, fine sawdust, black poster paint powder)

Here comes the scary part. Before I assembled the ebony layer of the packet, I cut the panels for the centre drawers to exact dimension. I then carefully aligned the layers in the packet. Now I have to separate the panels at exactly the lines of division in the ebony layer.

As it turns out, I got the cuts done pretty much as I had hoped and heaved a huge sigh of relief. The relief lasted a few minutes before I realized that the really scary part was next. When you glue these to the substrate, you don't get to see them so you label and mark everything you can think of, dry fit ten times and then suck it up and apply glue and press them. If you get one upside down (or an eighth of an inch too high or low or left or right, or crooked), there is really no way to fix the problem. ....... hence the mulitple dry fits, marking etc.
The picture below looks pretty ordinary but represents a night of poor sleep, two actually as I did the other side the next day.

To make a long story short, I got away with it this time. At my age this is firmly in the risk taking field as I seem to make little "slip of the mind" mistakes more often than I used to. But I made it this time so on to the next challenge.

Here's how they looked all mounted on the drawers and out in the Arizona sun.

You may notice that the 2" wide "bump out" strip looks a little bare in plain black. Well …....... be patient.

This is a picture of part of a page in "Masterpieces of Marquetry"

With that I'll sign off for tonight and get a good sleep.

Thanks for looking in.

Paul

.... I can breathe now…

... was holding my breath for a long time during that Hitchcock dialog…

Sure glad it turned out OK… It's nice to breathe again! LOL

What a Beauty of a Job / Project!

Thank you for the Pins & Needles experience…
... I can sleep better now…

Gnite… ZZZzzzzz….

 

[Texcaster]

Mounting the end motifs

First off, here's a photo that shows why I like to use self adhesive shelf paper for initial assembly. It allows me to set the piece up with equal kerfs, (painting in wood and Boulle styles) sub in flower colors as explained in the last segment, and see my shading as it progresses. In the photo you can see one of the pieces has been removed and shaded (lying on the plexiglas, top) and you can see the progress of the shading in the motif. The low tack adhesive makes this removal and replacement easy.

When I'm finished shading and I'm happy with the composition, I cover the glue side with masking tape, flip it over and remove the film from the show side.

Then I take the whole thing and mount it in one piece on (French) kraft paper with hot hide glue. After pressing (moderate pressure) and letting the glue dry, I remove the tape.

Here the piece has been filled with black mastic. (HHG, fine sawdust, black poster paint powder)

Here comes the scary part. Before I assembled the ebony layer of the packet, I cut the panels for the centre drawers to exact dimension. I then carefully aligned the layers in the packet. Now I have to separate the panels at exactly the lines of division in the ebony layer.

As it turns out, I got the cuts done pretty much as I had hoped and heaved a huge sigh of relief. The relief lasted a few minutes before I realized that the really scary part was next. When you glue these to the substrate, you don't get to see them so you label and mark everything you can think of, dry fit ten times and then suck it up and apply glue and press them. If you get one upside down (or an eighth of an inch too high or low or left or right, or crooked), there is really no way to fix the problem. ....... hence the mulitple dry fits, marking etc.
The picture below looks pretty ordinary but represents a night of poor sleep, two actually as I did the other side the next day.

To make a long story short, I got away with it this time. At my age this is firmly in the risk taking field as I seem to make little "slip of the mind" mistakes more often than I used to. But I made it this time so on to the next challenge.

Here's how they looked all mounted on the drawers and out in the Arizona sun.

You may notice that the 2" wide "bump out" strip looks a little bare in plain black. Well …....... be patient.

This is a picture of part of a page in "Masterpieces of Marquetry"

With that I'll sign off for tonight and get a good sleep.

Thanks for looking in.

Paul

Top job Paul! It's the scary stuff that makes it real.

 

[MontanaBob]

Mounting the end motifs

First off, here's a photo that shows why I like to use self adhesive shelf paper for initial assembly. It allows me to set the piece up with equal kerfs, (painting in wood and Boulle styles) sub in flower colors as explained in the last segment, and see my shading as it progresses. In the photo you can see one of the pieces has been removed and shaded (lying on the plexiglas, top) and you can see the progress of the shading in the motif. The low tack adhesive makes this removal and replacement easy.

When I'm finished shading and I'm happy with the composition, I cover the glue side with masking tape, flip it over and remove the film from the show side.

Then I take the whole thing and mount it in one piece on (French) kraft paper with hot hide glue. After pressing (moderate pressure) and letting the glue dry, I remove the tape.

Here the piece has been filled with black mastic. (HHG, fine sawdust, black poster paint powder)

Here comes the scary part. Before I assembled the ebony layer of the packet, I cut the panels for the centre drawers to exact dimension. I then carefully aligned the layers in the packet. Now I have to separate the panels at exactly the lines of division in the ebony layer.

As it turns out, I got the cuts done pretty much as I had hoped and heaved a huge sigh of relief. The relief lasted a few minutes before I realized that the really scary part was next. When you glue these to the substrate, you don't get to see them so you label and mark everything you can think of, dry fit ten times and then suck it up and apply glue and press them. If you get one upside down (or an eighth of an inch too high or low or left or right, or crooked), there is really no way to fix the problem. ....... hence the mulitple dry fits, marking etc.
The picture below looks pretty ordinary but represents a night of poor sleep, two actually as I did the other side the next day.

To make a long story short, I got away with it this time. At my age this is firmly in the risk taking field as I seem to make little "slip of the mind" mistakes more often than I used to. But I made it this time so on to the next challenge.

Here's how they looked all mounted on the drawers and out in the Arizona sun.

You may notice that the 2" wide "bump out" strip looks a little bare in plain black. Well …....... be patient.

This is a picture of part of a page in "Masterpieces of Marquetry"

With that I'll sign off for tonight and get a good sleep.

Thanks for looking in.

Paul

It looks like its all coming together just fine….Outstanding..

 

[RogerBean]

Mounting the end motifs

First off, here's a photo that shows why I like to use self adhesive shelf paper for initial assembly. It allows me to set the piece up with equal kerfs, (painting in wood and Boulle styles) sub in flower colors as explained in the last segment, and see my shading as it progresses. In the photo you can see one of the pieces has been removed and shaded (lying on the plexiglas, top) and you can see the progress of the shading in the motif. The low tack adhesive makes this removal and replacement easy.

When I'm finished shading and I'm happy with the composition, I cover the glue side with masking tape, flip it over and remove the film from the show side.

Then I take the whole thing and mount it in one piece on (French) kraft paper with hot hide glue. After pressing (moderate pressure) and letting the glue dry, I remove the tape.

Here the piece has been filled with black mastic. (HHG, fine sawdust, black poster paint powder)

Here comes the scary part. Before I assembled the ebony layer of the packet, I cut the panels for the centre drawers to exact dimension. I then carefully aligned the layers in the packet. Now I have to separate the panels at exactly the lines of division in the ebony layer.

As it turns out, I got the cuts done pretty much as I had hoped and heaved a huge sigh of relief. The relief lasted a few minutes before I realized that the really scary part was next. When you glue these to the substrate, you don't get to see them so you label and mark everything you can think of, dry fit ten times and then suck it up and apply glue and press them. If you get one upside down (or an eighth of an inch too high or low or left or right, or crooked), there is really no way to fix the problem. ....... hence the mulitple dry fits, marking etc.
The picture below looks pretty ordinary but represents a night of poor sleep, two actually as I did the other side the next day.

To make a long story short, I got away with it this time. At my age this is firmly in the risk taking field as I seem to make little "slip of the mind" mistakes more often than I used to. But I made it this time so on to the next challenge.

Here's how they looked all mounted on the drawers and out in the Arizona sun.

You may notice that the 2" wide "bump out" strip looks a little bare in plain black. Well …....... be patient.

This is a picture of part of a page in "Masterpieces of Marquetry"

With that I'll sign off for tonight and get a good sleep.

Thanks for looking in.

Paul

Looks marvelous. Many hours well spent.
Roger

 

[rustynails]

Mounting the end motifs

First off, here's a photo that shows why I like to use self adhesive shelf paper for initial assembly. It allows me to set the piece up with equal kerfs, (painting in wood and Boulle styles) sub in flower colors as explained in the last segment, and see my shading as it progresses. In the photo you can see one of the pieces has been removed and shaded (lying on the plexiglas, top) and you can see the progress of the shading in the motif. The low tack adhesive makes this removal and replacement easy.

When I'm finished shading and I'm happy with the composition, I cover the glue side with masking tape, flip it over and remove the film from the show side.

Then I take the whole thing and mount it in one piece on (French) kraft paper with hot hide glue. After pressing (moderate pressure) and letting the glue dry, I remove the tape.

Here the piece has been filled with black mastic. (HHG, fine sawdust, black poster paint powder)

Here comes the scary part. Before I assembled the ebony layer of the packet, I cut the panels for the centre drawers to exact dimension. I then carefully aligned the layers in the packet. Now I have to separate the panels at exactly the lines of division in the ebony layer.

As it turns out, I got the cuts done pretty much as I had hoped and heaved a huge sigh of relief. The relief lasted a few minutes before I realized that the really scary part was next. When you glue these to the substrate, you don't get to see them so you label and mark everything you can think of, dry fit ten times and then suck it up and apply glue and press them. If you get one upside down (or an eighth of an inch too high or low or left or right, or crooked), there is really no way to fix the problem. ....... hence the mulitple dry fits, marking etc.
The picture below looks pretty ordinary but represents a night of poor sleep, two actually as I did the other side the next day.

To make a long story short, I got away with it this time. At my age this is firmly in the risk taking field as I seem to make little "slip of the mind" mistakes more often than I used to. But I made it this time so on to the next challenge.

Here's how they looked all mounted on the drawers and out in the Arizona sun.

You may notice that the 2" wide "bump out" strip looks a little bare in plain black. Well …....... be patient.

This is a picture of part of a page in "Masterpieces of Marquetry"

With that I'll sign off for tonight and get a good sleep.

Thanks for looking in.

Paul

Paul looking good …

 

[mafe]

Mounting the end motifs

First off, here's a photo that shows why I like to use self adhesive shelf paper for initial assembly. It allows me to set the piece up with equal kerfs, (painting in wood and Boulle styles) sub in flower colors as explained in the last segment, and see my shading as it progresses. In the photo you can see one of the pieces has been removed and shaded (lying on the plexiglas, top) and you can see the progress of the shading in the motif. The low tack adhesive makes this removal and replacement easy.

When I'm finished shading and I'm happy with the composition, I cover the glue side with masking tape, flip it over and remove the film from the show side.

Then I take the whole thing and mount it in one piece on (French) kraft paper with hot hide glue. After pressing (moderate pressure) and letting the glue dry, I remove the tape.

Here the piece has been filled with black mastic. (HHG, fine sawdust, black poster paint powder)

Here comes the scary part. Before I assembled the ebony layer of the packet, I cut the panels for the centre drawers to exact dimension. I then carefully aligned the layers in the packet. Now I have to separate the panels at exactly the lines of division in the ebony layer.

As it turns out, I got the cuts done pretty much as I had hoped and heaved a huge sigh of relief. The relief lasted a few minutes before I realized that the really scary part was next. When you glue these to the substrate, you don't get to see them so you label and mark everything you can think of, dry fit ten times and then suck it up and apply glue and press them. If you get one upside down (or an eighth of an inch too high or low or left or right, or crooked), there is really no way to fix the problem. ....... hence the mulitple dry fits, marking etc.
The picture below looks pretty ordinary but represents a night of poor sleep, two actually as I did the other side the next day.

To make a long story short, I got away with it this time. At my age this is firmly in the risk taking field as I seem to make little "slip of the mind" mistakes more often than I used to. But I made it this time so on to the next challenge.

Here's how they looked all mounted on the drawers and out in the Arizona sun.

You may notice that the 2" wide "bump out" strip looks a little bare in plain black. Well …....... be patient.

This is a picture of part of a page in "Masterpieces of Marquetry"

With that I'll sign off for tonight and get a good sleep.

Thanks for looking in.

Paul

I would so much love to look over your shoulder for a day or two as you work.
Happy new year,
Mads

 

[Schwieb]

Mounting the end motifs

First off, here's a photo that shows why I like to use self adhesive shelf paper for initial assembly. It allows me to set the piece up with equal kerfs, (painting in wood and Boulle styles) sub in flower colors as explained in the last segment, and see my shading as it progresses. In the photo you can see one of the pieces has been removed and shaded (lying on the plexiglas, top) and you can see the progress of the shading in the motif. The low tack adhesive makes this removal and replacement easy.

When I'm finished shading and I'm happy with the composition, I cover the glue side with masking tape, flip it over and remove the film from the show side.

Then I take the whole thing and mount it in one piece on (French) kraft paper with hot hide glue. After pressing (moderate pressure) and letting the glue dry, I remove the tape.

Here the piece has been filled with black mastic. (HHG, fine sawdust, black poster paint powder)

Here comes the scary part. Before I assembled the ebony layer of the packet, I cut the panels for the centre drawers to exact dimension. I then carefully aligned the layers in the packet. Now I have to separate the panels at exactly the lines of division in the ebony layer.

As it turns out, I got the cuts done pretty much as I had hoped and heaved a huge sigh of relief. The relief lasted a few minutes before I realized that the really scary part was next. When you glue these to the substrate, you don't get to see them so you label and mark everything you can think of, dry fit ten times and then suck it up and apply glue and press them. If you get one upside down (or an eighth of an inch too high or low or left or right, or crooked), there is really no way to fix the problem. ....... hence the mulitple dry fits, marking etc.
The picture below looks pretty ordinary but represents a night of poor sleep, two actually as I did the other side the next day.

To make a long story short, I got away with it this time. At my age this is firmly in the risk taking field as I seem to make little "slip of the mind" mistakes more often than I used to. But I made it this time so on to the next challenge.

Here's how they looked all mounted on the drawers and out in the Arizona sun.

You may notice that the 2" wide "bump out" strip looks a little bare in plain black. Well …....... be patient.

This is a picture of part of a page in "Masterpieces of Marquetry"

With that I'll sign off for tonight and get a good sleep.

Thanks for looking in.

Paul

Incredible Paul, just outstanding. No surprise coming from you.

 

[Sodabowski]

Mounting the end motifs

First off, here's a photo that shows why I like to use self adhesive shelf paper for initial assembly. It allows me to set the piece up with equal kerfs, (painting in wood and Boulle styles) sub in flower colors as explained in the last segment, and see my shading as it progresses. In the photo you can see one of the pieces has been removed and shaded (lying on the plexiglas, top) and you can see the progress of the shading in the motif. The low tack adhesive makes this removal and replacement easy.

When I'm finished shading and I'm happy with the composition, I cover the glue side with masking tape, flip it over and remove the film from the show side.

Then I take the whole thing and mount it in one piece on (French) kraft paper with hot hide glue. After pressing (moderate pressure) and letting the glue dry, I remove the tape.

Here the piece has been filled with black mastic. (HHG, fine sawdust, black poster paint powder)

Here comes the scary part. Before I assembled the ebony layer of the packet, I cut the panels for the centre drawers to exact dimension. I then carefully aligned the layers in the packet. Now I have to separate the panels at exactly the lines of division in the ebony layer.

As it turns out, I got the cuts done pretty much as I had hoped and heaved a huge sigh of relief. The relief lasted a few minutes before I realized that the really scary part was next. When you glue these to the substrate, you don't get to see them so you label and mark everything you can think of, dry fit ten times and then suck it up and apply glue and press them. If you get one upside down (or an eighth of an inch too high or low or left or right, or crooked), there is really no way to fix the problem. ....... hence the mulitple dry fits, marking etc.
The picture below looks pretty ordinary but represents a night of poor sleep, two actually as I did the other side the next day.

To make a long story short, I got away with it this time. At my age this is firmly in the risk taking field as I seem to make little "slip of the mind" mistakes more often than I used to. But I made it this time so on to the next challenge.

Here's how they looked all mounted on the drawers and out in the Arizona sun.

You may notice that the 2" wide "bump out" strip looks a little bare in plain black. Well …....... be patient.

This is a picture of part of a page in "Masterpieces of Marquetry"

With that I'll sign off for tonight and get a good sleep.

Thanks for looking in.

Paul

Do you ever feel at a loss for proper words? Well I do right now.

 

[tyvekboy]

Mounting the end motifs

First off, here's a photo that shows why I like to use self adhesive shelf paper for initial assembly. It allows me to set the piece up with equal kerfs, (painting in wood and Boulle styles) sub in flower colors as explained in the last segment, and see my shading as it progresses. In the photo you can see one of the pieces has been removed and shaded (lying on the plexiglas, top) and you can see the progress of the shading in the motif. The low tack adhesive makes this removal and replacement easy.

When I'm finished shading and I'm happy with the composition, I cover the glue side with masking tape, flip it over and remove the film from the show side.

Then I take the whole thing and mount it in one piece on (French) kraft paper with hot hide glue. After pressing (moderate pressure) and letting the glue dry, I remove the tape.

Here the piece has been filled with black mastic. (HHG, fine sawdust, black poster paint powder)

Here comes the scary part. Before I assembled the ebony layer of the packet, I cut the panels for the centre drawers to exact dimension. I then carefully aligned the layers in the packet. Now I have to separate the panels at exactly the lines of division in the ebony layer.

As it turns out, I got the cuts done pretty much as I had hoped and heaved a huge sigh of relief. The relief lasted a few minutes before I realized that the really scary part was next. When you glue these to the substrate, you don't get to see them so you label and mark everything you can think of, dry fit ten times and then suck it up and apply glue and press them. If you get one upside down (or an eighth of an inch too high or low or left or right, or crooked), there is really no way to fix the problem. ....... hence the mulitple dry fits, marking etc.
The picture below looks pretty ordinary but represents a night of poor sleep, two actually as I did the other side the next day.

To make a long story short, I got away with it this time. At my age this is firmly in the risk taking field as I seem to make little "slip of the mind" mistakes more often than I used to. But I made it this time so on to the next challenge.

Here's how they looked all mounted on the drawers and out in the Arizona sun.

You may notice that the 2" wide "bump out" strip looks a little bare in plain black. Well …....... be patient.

This is a picture of part of a page in "Masterpieces of Marquetry"

With that I'll sign off for tonight and get a good sleep.

Thanks for looking in.

Paul

Simply amazing. Beautiful work. Donʻt think I would attempt it.

 

[jamesbond007]

Mounting the end motifs

First off, here's a photo that shows why I like to use self adhesive shelf paper for initial assembly. It allows me to set the piece up with equal kerfs, (painting in wood and Boulle styles) sub in flower colors as explained in the last segment, and see my shading as it progresses. In the photo you can see one of the pieces has been removed and shaded (lying on the plexiglas, top) and you can see the progress of the shading in the motif. The low tack adhesive makes this removal and replacement easy.

When I'm finished shading and I'm happy with the composition, I cover the glue side with masking tape, flip it over and remove the film from the show side.

Then I take the whole thing and mount it in one piece on (French) kraft paper with hot hide glue. After pressing (moderate pressure) and letting the glue dry, I remove the tape.

Here the piece has been filled with black mastic. (HHG, fine sawdust, black poster paint powder)

Here comes the scary part. Before I assembled the ebony layer of the packet, I cut the panels for the centre drawers to exact dimension. I then carefully aligned the layers in the packet. Now I have to separate the panels at exactly the lines of division in the ebony layer.

As it turns out, I got the cuts done pretty much as I had hoped and heaved a huge sigh of relief. The relief lasted a few minutes before I realized that the really scary part was next. When you glue these to the substrate, you don't get to see them so you label and mark everything you can think of, dry fit ten times and then suck it up and apply glue and press them. If you get one upside down (or an eighth of an inch too high or low or left or right, or crooked), there is really no way to fix the problem. ....... hence the mulitple dry fits, marking etc.
The picture below looks pretty ordinary but represents a night of poor sleep, two actually as I did the other side the next day.

To make a long story short, I got away with it this time. At my age this is firmly in the risk taking field as I seem to make little "slip of the mind" mistakes more often than I used to. But I made it this time so on to the next challenge.

Here's how they looked all mounted on the drawers and out in the Arizona sun.

You may notice that the 2" wide "bump out" strip looks a little bare in plain black. Well …....... be patient.

This is a picture of part of a page in "Masterpieces of Marquetry"

With that I'll sign off for tonight and get a good sleep.

Thanks for looking in.

Paul

Very informative and interesting Paul. I learn something with every new blog entry you post. This is developing into a spectacular work of art.