Thread: TV stand cabinet, marquetry doors WIP

Alex, That is absolutely stunning.

From time to time, I have a little spit because I don,t have an ounce of artistic talent in my body, & people say that I have, I make things out of wood.

To me, The type of woodwork I do is pretty straight forward. I put a lot of effort is to do the best I can on every job, & I am not unhappy with my work, but it's not art, its construction.

What you have done here is ART.

VERY WELL DONE & a pleasure to read your thread.

Steve

Very nice Alex

Beautiful work Alex.
How many different veneers did you use? and what sort of time frame for each door?

Thanks all. Ticky, the art is the work of my neighbour who did the original drawings, what I've done is craft.
The time taken for the doors varied, the maidenhair fern took a little over two days, while the two centre ones took about a day each.
The veneers I used were jarrah, blackwood, rose mahogany, Aus. cedar, camphor laurel, northern silky oak, silver ash, Aus. white beech, Tas. myrtle and kauri, but none of the doors used all of them.
I'll post pics later of the fitted doors.

I test fitted the doors. because of the width of the opening (960mm) I went with bifold doors rather than double doors. I used Soss hinges from Lee Valley. The centre drawers have ball catches that run in tracks routed in the top and bottom of the opening. I will put either magnets or some other sort of catch in the centre where the doors meet.
Haven't decided on pulls for the doors yet. SWMBO likes the idea of carved handles, and I'm attracted to that, but I've never done any carving. We shall see.

Excellent work! Will you stain or clear finish when complete?

Thanks, Wouldwood. Usually I use Kunos oil, but have seen the results of Ardvos, which is similar, cheaper and doesn't seem much different, so that's what I'll use.

Incredible. Really beautiful.

I hope you will continue with your newly gained skills! I think you have a good feel for it, there is plenty of kitsch marquetry out there and yours is an exception.
What is the thickness of the veneer you use?
Congratulations!
katbobkat

As there will be no progress 'til next week (the doors are visiting the TWWW show) I thought I'd post some close-ups of the marquetry. I guess there are a few imperfections, but I've only done one earlier large piece this way, so I'm reasonably pleased, and have learned a lot.
I wish I'd learned to do marquetry this way earlier - it would have made a couple of jobs a lot quicker and better quality.

Beautiful work Alex. A skill that I wish I had.

Ditto.


Even the back of it looks so pretty.

After a minor interruption I managed to carve the door pulls and hang the doors.
SWMBO will be happy now (for a while).

Beautif Alex. Can't add to what everyone else has said.