Intarsia

Hi my name is Barry and I would like to introduce you to art of intarsia I have found that more often than not people that I run into do not know what this ancient art is.

Here is a brief history to familiarize you with this process. The ancient art of intarsia-the making of decorating and pictorial mosaics by laying precious materials into a ground work of solid wood – inspired both marquetry and inlay. The word “intarsia” is derived from the Latin word “interserere” which means to insert.

In Italy, where the techniques are more than 100 years older than in other European countries, Intarsia was originally made by sinking forms into wood following a design and filling in with different wood, which is what we do today, We first trace the design onto the different coloured woods noticing which way the grain is running and then cut the pieces out on a scroll saw and then we determine which pieces have to stand out to give the 3D affect and put backing pieces in we can then put the whole picture together and blend it in by sanding it. I use a Dremel tool with a sanding drum. After that we take it to pieces and bevel each piece, again I use the Dremel tool
And then I will stain the pieces because I use pine to keep the cost down and it is very difficult to get the exotic woods.

Hope this explains it

Cheers
Barry