The good folks at Popular Woodworking magazine invited me to do some demonstrations at the Woodworking in America show in Pasadena last October.
One of my demos was on double bevel marquetry so I decided to make a small sample of something to show the people in my class.
I decided to try and make a “bug”.
Yellow heart made a great background color and I love the graphic qualities of the end grain of black palm wood from Indonesia so I used it for the main body. Ebony was my choice for the legs, Pernambuco for the eye with that amazing orange color, purpleheart for the face and a lapis substitute I purchased made from powder and resin for the head.
The horn seemed to need something to make it stand out so I used a piece of 60 thousandths thick abalone shell that my good friend Larry Robinson gave to me. Abalone is very hard so when it was all glued up, I used a hardwood block and wrapped some 120 sandpaper over it to block sand and level the surface.
After hand sanding to 600 grit, I applied Arm-R-Seal wiping varnish to the surface and using a rubber block, wet sanded it with 1000 grit. It really smoothed the surface and made the colors come out.
My wife Victoria and I really enjoyed the show and I finally got to meet renown woodworker Roy Underhill for the first time. What a cool guy he is. My only regret is that I was too busy teaching to get much of a chance to walk around and see the rest of the show. So much great woodworking going on and not enough time to see it all.
My Double Bevel Marquetry DVD explains the technique of creating pictures in wood step by step.
