Nocturne @ Protea Gallery - Straw marquetry

Two months ago I have been invited to participate in a group exhibit at Protea Gallery in San Diego with a dozen other artists to provide a small dimension piece on the “Nocturne” theme.

I did not know what to do until a week before delivery.

I had some straw sitting around for me finding the time to work on it. The black and blue dyed straw seems to fit the theme and I did it.

Here is the black straw all and splited

The dark blue is real nice, has some nice variation in it,

The light blue is real bright and powerful

Straws has a natural finish on it made of silicate and the reflexion changes with your movement and the light.

Inspired by the the Chopin’s first nocturne and the use of the straw from the 30’s I came up with this piece.

Pictures can not really show the effect of straw. I will take pictures at the show to see if I can capture the effect a bit more or a video maybe.

Cheers

-- Patrice lejeune

Treasure box #2 - 2nd panel

I just finished cutting the second inside panel for this treasure box series #2.

This is for the inside of the lid.

Again here is the box we took our inspiration from

And the drawing for the inside of the lid

Some of the pieces are a bit small, I have a tendency to go to far… It is cut on the marquetry chevalet.

The piece by piece process require to be precise

The pieces are laid out in éclaté according to their final position

I really like those detail pictures

The 2 panels are done cutting, ready for shading in hot sand

So shading in the next episode!

PS : Answering the private message : An idea of the size of the pieces.

Treasure box #2 - First marquetry panel

The first panel is the inside of the box so Patrick can start building the box

Warming up, I feel the age, I think I need glasses.

First picture on the tray

Next, the inside of the lid, as they are in the same style, then shading and put those to together.

Treasure box #2 - Preparing for marquetry

Some of new have seen our new project on other posts. We had a pretty good success with our first series, the 4 copies were sold in a year.

We are going to revisit this box sold at Christie’s if my memory is good.
The picture quality is not great, but we enjoyed the composition and decided to use it as a ground for our new design.

The design has been finished for couple weeks now, and for the past couple days we have been working on preparing for marquetry cutting.

As I am using piece by piece technique in order to end up with 4 copies, after the drawing are completed I start cutting each individual piece on paper, as pattern for cutting.

Each cut pieces are placed according to position on a tray

And each tray is dedicated to a panel for the box

The top part is a little too complicated and too big to set in one tray

So I divided it in 3 trays, the inside cartouche with the bird

The oval scrolls and acanthus

Then the corners that i need to cut

When I am done cutting those las papers, I will start cutting real marquetry, as Patrick Edwards in the meantime has been preparing the palette of color, with sawn veneers.

The first picture to cut is the inside panel so Patrick can start building the box

The numbers are the chosen veneers positions, and the paper patterns are glued on those packs

The packs are secured by riveting nails in between pieces

Lets go cut something!!!!!

Cheers

Boulle marquetry doors

Couple years ago we were hired to build a Boulle cabinet for a client in New York who wanted a murphy bed for his office.

The project started with a all Armoire, before they changed there mind and decided to go for just the door on a black cabinet.

The Armoire project had a marquetry layout inspired by the inside of an Armoire from the Louvre and the other parts were inspired by other armoire from the wallace and other collections. The elements were “photoshoped” for the front part for approval.

The blueprints made

The side panels were designed

Then every marquetry panels were carefully drawn

We started the project by cutting up all our wonderfull white oak from France that had been drying for over 10 years.

Everything was made with hand tools starting with the coves

Joinery

Grooves

Mouldings

The all top portion was assembled

Before the Armoire project went south. The client changed their mind and decided for a simpler cabinet, and we had only the marquetry panels to do.

We had also bronzes custom made no more needed
“Staples” for the corners, protecting the marquetry

They were made in lab before to be sand casted

We had a rosette we liked from a french ormolu, bronze catalog

But not the right size so we had it carved for sand casting

We stopped the bronzes at that point and focused on the marquetry panels on the chevalet

The other part that was kind of wasted were the side panels no more needed but already cut.

We used a map for cutting color coded for what should be cut first.

When all the marquetry was cut, we put the panel together on blue tape, for easy adjustment of the pieces

Then the panels were glued face down with hide glue on paper for easy handling and glued on the panels with fish glue. The best glue for metal to wood glueing.

At this point the Boulle marquetry is ready to receive engraving in order to give all the volume to the brass parts.

We hired a friend of mine, Émilie Alem, from École Boulle who graduated in engraving and who knows very well how to enhance Boulle marquetry.

Even if it was a bit disappointing for us to not be able to complete the all initial project as it will have been a masterpiece instead of simple marquetry panels, we still have the wood for the armoire, and the beauty of Boulle marquetry is that there is a counter part, and one day, one day, we will have the time and the client to complete this project, hopefully with those existing panel on the inside like on the original and a more complicated composition on the outside.