Treasure Box - Series #2 - Post #13: Top incrustation

As promised some news on the marquetry top for the treasure box series #2

The challenge here is to insert the oval white bone inlay first then cut the rest of the background repositioning the pack perfectly as some of the marquetry looks like it moves in front and in the back of those bones.

I first build the pack with 4 layers of paperbacked ebony sawn veneer

I used a idea of mine and an idea from Patrick to locate perfectly the veneer with the 2 drawings that had to be used to cut this background twice.

I used lines and a v cut to clamp the pack with the first drawing and he second drawing

and drill 4 holes with a bit the right size to use veneer nails to rebuild the back after cutting the oval.

The drawing for the oval has bridges to keep everything at the right spot

Cutting the cavities on the marquetry chevalet

I prepared a light paper assembly board as I had to glue it twice on an assembly board and did not want to add to much paper and glue to the front.

I had to cut some ebony string inlays to go in sandwich between 2 bones purflings.

And soaked the bone to make them more bendable.

Here is the background with the oval cut done, the ebony string inlay and the bone. The assembly board is ready, the glue is hot and I have podcast on my Ipad, ready to go.

The background is slapped down on the assembly board with hot hide glue

I cut the middle bridges as I go and insert the 3 string inlays in the cavity, here is a particularly horrible picture to illustrate this step

You can see now the locator hole Patrick thought about to rebuild the pack precisely

and the rebuilding in action

Ready to cut some more.

The pack was fairly heavy (3 Lb) and the ebony is really hard to cut. 

It took me roughly 5 days with 5 hours of cutting a day to finish it. This is after 3 days.

But the locators did work great. As you can see the pieces I had to keep as they were to small for bridges are exactly the same, better than expected.

When I open a pack I always keep all my trash you never know what you are going to miss

Like this broken bridge

I got myself ready for incrustation

A series of picture to illustrate the incrustation session, almost 2 weeks for 4 panels

And as usual I love details shot. Please pardon this excess of pictures, but this has been my biggest marquetry challenge so far and I did sweat a lot on that part, and not only because I was working at 85-92 degrees because of successive heat waves…

Thank you for following !

-- Patrice lejeune

Treasure Box #2 - Post #9 - Sand Shading

I has been a while and I thought I could give an update on this project.

We are preparing the class room for june, which means cleaning the space we use between the classes as our marquetry and french polish workshop.

I am finishing shading before to put the project on the side for those reason.

I use the sand shading method and mostly dipping considering the number of pieces.

I usually do one or 2 flowers at a time and dip a series of 2 or 3 pieces, sometime 4 which gives me an average of 8 to 16 pieces at all time in the sand. The burning can go real fast on some wood so I prioritize them by there speeds and try to keep the same type of wood in the sand to get a certain rhythm like put it in 1 2 3 4 flip a other one 1 2 3 4 take of the last one 1 2 3 4, put in a new one if I have time 1 2 3 4 flip the first one 1 2 3 4 take of the second 1 2 3 4 etc…

I place them on my paper in order so I can put them back easily in eclate when I am done shading a group. this gives ime for the sand to get real hot again by putting the lid back on.

When I am done doing a side of the tray I put it on the other side of the skillet for a better access to the pieces to shade

So up to today I have done all the box’s sides

and a good part of the top

And as usual couple close up just because I like them

-- Patrice lejeune