Hand carving for wooden furniture
A drawing becomes a shallow relief as sharp tools shape the light across a wooden surface.
EUROPE TODAY / Wooden home
Wood-veneer marquetry
Grain, colour and small fitted pieces become a new surface for contemporary furniture.
- Where it is practised
- United Kingdom and France
- Materials & tools
- Thin wood veneers, a supporting surface and suitable adhesive
- Used in
- Wooden home
A working craft, today.
Marquetry remains an active craft in European furniture and decorative work. The maker selects thin veneers for their colour, grain and visual effect, then cuts and fits pieces to build a planned surface. A small change in grain direction can alter the way a shape reads in the finished design. The assembled veneer work is applied to a supporting surface and finished for its intended use. Craft organisations and current training programmes continue to teach these skills for furniture, interior surfaces and commissioned decorative pieces.
Inside the process.
An introduction to the sequence. Materials, tools and working methods vary with the project.
01
Plan the design
Develop a drawing that responds to the furniture surface and intended visual effect.
02
Choose the veneers
Select and orient thin woods for their colour, figure and grain.
03
Cut and fit
Cut the component shapes and fit the adjacent pieces into the assembled pattern.
04
Apply and finish
Bond the assembled veneer work to its support, then level and finish it appropriately.
THE DECISIONS BEHIND THE DETAIL
Where the skill shows.
- The picture or pattern comes from the material itself, including its grain.
- Accurate fitting allows separate pieces to read as a continuous surface.
- A contemporary cabinet or table can carry a design developed specifically for its proportions.
Made for use.
Cabinet doors and frontsTabletops and writing surfacesCommissioned furniture panels and interior details
Follow the craft.
- Heritage Crafts: Marquetry
- Marquetry Society: the craft and the window method
- École Boulle: current marquetry and furniture training
PHOTOGRAPHS, FILMS & CREDITS
Tools in a Belgian cabinetmaking workshop
Amaury Duhameau, Atelier de Sassor Denis Bruyère (2).JPG, 29 August 2014, via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0. Proportionally resized.
Original photo ↗ · CC BY-SA 3.0 ↗
Proportional resize and JPEG encoding only; no cropping or content alteration.
KEEP EXPLORING
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