I have done a few dye projects since the last post to this blog but they have been small and not very noteworthy. I did however learn from them and have decided to try something a whole lot more intricate than I've attempted before.

The story begins with new granite countertops for our kitchen and my wife's request for a bit of marquetry for a feature area in the new backsplash. She tried my Chianti tray there and likes it but it's a little too small.

 

She liked the Italian theme but said she would like more of a landscape so off I went to search Google images. This lovely bit of rural Toscana is actually about a rental property near Gaiole in Chianti, a place we have stayed in the past so it became the centerpiece that I would build the picture around.

 

Next I found a generic grapevine graphic that I could work with …....

 

...and made a quick sketch.

 

Then I imported the sketch to Inkscape and came up with a cutting pattern.

 

As you can see it is quite large to cut on the chevalet with a saw frame only 18" deep. It hardly looks cutable but with a little ingenuity and a few different start holes it was finally cut down into pieces that could be handled more easily.

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the cutting well underway, this is a good time to break off. Next up will be finishing the cutting and assembling the monochrome marquetry. This whole picture will be from one (jointed) piece of 1/16" maple. All color will be added by "watercolor dyeing".

Thanks for coming along on the ride. I'm having lots of fun with this and it presents all kinds of probl …. er … opportunities so it should be fun.

Questions, comments critiques as always are welcome.

Paul