Finally was able to get a little work done on my wizard marquetry. I was planning to make a large picture about the size of two A4 pieces of paper, but I chickened out thinking that it might be wise to keep it A4 size instead to make it more manageable to cut on my Chevalet since I’m so inexperienced with it.

The first thing I did was to redraw the picture in the smaller format. This time I remembered to flip the picture first to get a mirror image before tracing it on my light table. This is done so that I can cut the backside of the veneer with the face side down and when I finally glue the back to a substrate the picture will be correctly oriented.This is the new tracing. I did number all the different pieces in the drawing to correspond with the numbers I assigned to the veneers after the photo was taken.

After tracing the drawing I made a transparency to use as a viewfinder to select the positioning of the veneers. This is done to take advantage of the best grain and coloring options as showing in the 2nd photo.

The transparency also helped me to find the size needed for each patch. I’ll explain what the patches are in a later part of this series. These patches were then cut and the backs covered with marquetry tape to reinforce the veneer for sawing. The photo shows the tape being brushed with a brass brush to insure good adhesion. In this case the tape was taken from my tape dispenser which has a wetting roller to moisten the glue. The next pic shows the veneer covered with paper and lastly it is put between a couple of platters and clamped. When I take them out next time they should stay flat and ready for the next step. I still have more veneers to prepare, but this shows the process.

Remember this is not a tutorial. I am doing it the way I think is right, so if you see anything wrong please don’t hesitate to let me know. Also please ask if you need a further explanation of any of the steps shown above. Thanks for following along!