Wood Painting 2

Video of me planing veneers of the image here.

On April 28th 2018, my daughter was born. Becoming a dad was a very special time for me and very emotional. To celebrate this and help myself process the intense feelings I delved into this intricate marquetry project depicting my daughter at age 2 days old.

I used 9 different woods, chosen for their color and also their density. The reason was that I intended to plane the image into veneers the same way Japanese masters make Yosegi-Zaiku. You may have seen this wooden pattern veneer on traditional puzzle boxes before. I wanted to push the limits of the material and tools as far as they could possibly go with this project. It was a gamble and I had no idea if it was going to work. I spent odd hours each night working on it as my baby daughter and wife slept. In the end I created this stunning image...and made 14 copies of it.

I used a technique called double bevel marquetry to build the image. To do this I cut small shapes of stacked pieces of wood on the scroll saw with the saw blade tilted at a slight angle. If you have the angle just right, the upper shape will fit perfectly into lower hole of the shape after the cut.

After image was made, I cut it into 3 strips and mounted this on solid wood blocks. The blocks help absorb vibrations when planing so a tear free veneer pops out of the plane and can be used as an overlay. Japanese planes called "kanna" are well suited for this and can even be very wide.

I consider this technique one of the highest levels of woodworking. I always wanted to create Yosegi-Zaiku like the Japanese masters. I have not yet seen anyone apply this technique to a marquetry image, but I know in Japan there are also images made in wood called Zougan Art and I wouldn't be surprised if there is a technique for planing this into veneer too.

Later I obtained a large plane (okanna) and did this. I'll use it on my next wood painting.