Here are some photos from my marquetry demonstration this past Monday. By the end of the evening we had a crowd of about 20+ people watching with well over a hundred people stopping by throughout. I was very surprised to see so many people interested in marquetry.
Following is Pierre Ramond's tracing of a flower in the Pierre Gole bureau (1675). I initially trace this drawing in inkscape, creating a rough vector drawing. This allows me to scale the drawing up or down without loss of quality. After getting the rough drawing done I go back to a photo of the original flower and adjust the drawing so it more closely resembles the actual flower. Then I arrive at the final drawing I will work from - quite different from my first version. I draw the outline in red as it is easier to see while sawing.
Then I create color maps and plan out what veneer species I will need to match the original flower. For this particular flower I only really needed two veneers, a light and a dark. But I wanted multiple copies so in my packet I assembled two light and two dark veneers. Those were Holly (sawn by myself at 2mm thickness), Sapele 1.6mm, Rosewood 1.6mm, and Curly Maple 1.6mm. Here's a video showing some of the prep of the Holly veneer. I also paper back all of my veneers. It provides a lot of stability to the veneers during sawing as well as during removal from the packet. Here's a short video of that process with instruction.
Next I flip the image so when I go to assemble the flower face down it is easier to keep track of what piece goes where.
The next series of images show the flower being cut out on the chevalet and organized on a tray.
This is where we ended the night. All of the petals are cut out and the initial organization is done. After this I would mix the colors according to the color maps, shade the pieces with hot sand, then assemble them face down on an assembly board.
