Paradise Ridge Winery Inlaid Bar 1994
By David J. Marks
Photo by Don Russel
Entire bar measures 2 feet x 26 feet. Bubinga & various woods.
In 1994 I was commissioned to make this bar with an inlaid design of grapes and leaves for Paradise Ridge Winery in Santa Rosa, CA. I spent an evening drinking a bottle of Zinfandel wine and drawing until I completed the image for the inlay. Technically, I used a method known as “Double Bevel Marquetry” to cut and fit numerous little pieces of wood together to make the picture.
I wanted the leaves to have an animated look so I chose a very rare wood, quilted mahogany which has veins in it. I had to very carefully cut and fit some of the veins into other pieces of the mahogany to create the effect of the leaves I was looking for. I used purpleheart for the grapes, cutting them out one at a time, placing them in hot sand to char the edges and then glue them in place. The charring or sand shading as it’s known, helps to create shadows and gives the image a 3 dimensional appearance. Ziricote has a great bark like texture in the grain so I used it for the branches and ebony to cut the tiny tendrils.
The background wood is ribbon grained yellowheart from Brazil. I joined pieces on a slight diagonal to create more movement and contrast to the marquetry image.
One of the big challenges on this pieces was to inlay the elliptical marquetry panel into the solid wood quarter sawn Bubinga bar top and create a small one eighth wide border of Ebony to highlight it. .