Harrow Marquetry Group

On the hunt for a suitable marquetry project and looking through some old pictures, I found this black and white photo of my wife (taken by her boyfriend at the time). I liked the pose and the way the light broke across her face and clothes. Realising that the background would detract from this, I cropped the picture and deleted the background altogether, replacing it with a moody piece of American gum veneer. The hair was mainly pieces of walnut veneer. I was pleased with the result as there is a good harmony overall. In this instance, I didn't want to use coloured veneers. Rather using natural veneers to let the wood tell the story. As usual, I made the picture using the window method, which works well for me. I often believe that one of the most skilful parts of creating marquetry is choosing the right subject as well as the most suitable veneers. On the next video, I will demonstrate this once more.

As a new member of harrow marquetry group I chose to make a box with what I thought was an easy design, however, I soon found that design and planning is probably harder than the marquetry itself. The box was easy to make out of py and each joint was made using the Festool joinder the ply was birch ply and 12mm thick so its quite substantial although the box has moved in places

Les talks over problems his student has with his piece of marquetry. Choosing the correct wood veneers turns out to be the key to a good project. On this project, I didn't choose a big enough background piece of veneer.

Les is one of our most prolific marquetarians, producing some amazing marquetry portraits. I think the amount of work put into doing the beard on this piece of marquetry is amazing. The wood veneer (a burr) used in the hat is also worth a closer look

This is an advanced piece of marquetry. The picture is called Pueblo Street Market 1920 (after Z.S. Liang) Winner of Advanced and Rosebowl at the annual Harrow Marquetry groups competition .This picture done by Les was a subject he enjoyed doing a couple of years ago, although it was the first time it has won any prizes. As all the judges pointed out, the perspective and details are very impressive, although one judge would have preferred a smaller border. Les is one of Harrow’s tutors.

The marquetry on this picture frame is of a Fairy and the name the marquetarian gave the piece is" The Mallow Fairy".

A three veneer picture of a famous western photographer, whose portraits of Native American are quite famous.

Les explains to Enrico, the marquetry judge from St Albans Marquetry Group, how he composed the picture by merging two photos. (see the blog on Harrows Marquetry Groups website for details). Enrico comments on the slight irregularity in the corner of the picture! Winner of "Travel" theme competition. Name of picture Lonely Road. Les is one of the Marquetry tutors at the Harrow Marquetry Groups workshops on a Friday nigh

This picture of a lady's face is called "The Posy". Janet's three veneer picture is discussed by the marquetry judge Enrico. Enrico is a member of St Albans Marquetry Group so he is independent of the Harrow Group. We also have an independent art critic and he awarded this piece the Artistic Merit award. Over the years Janet has produced numerous good marquetry pictures and has received various awards for her outstanding work. She is known for good knife cutting skills and balance of colour in her work. She is also one of Harrow’s tutors.

This is my first piece of marquetry for a competition. It took about 36 hours to complete, and I was quite happy with the outcome. Next time I will make sure I have the right materials at hand as the background piece of veneer I used was too small, and I ended up with the work off centre so had to place a border around the edge. Then I scraped the surface away top right to expose the background wood! Not good, you live and learn.

This marquetarian (Brian) is not only exceptionally good at marquetry, he also has a good eye for a subject and a theme. The piece of marquetry demonstrated his skills perfectly. Simple precise clean and a good eye for colour.

Brian sorts through our extensive store of veneers for marquetry.
Over the years we have accumulated a mountain of veneers, and now we cant get to it all. This looks brutal, but we have boxes and draws full of un-sorted stock. Donations from previous members and generally people donating veneers for marquetry to us has led us to take this exception action.

At the Harrow Marquetry Group, we had our first competition of 2018.

Six of the members made a picture based on a subject that was given to them in a black and white format. The only restrictions the member had was don't change the size and content.  Each member has full use of all the veneers that are in the group's stores. 

This is the first video of a series the club intends to make, to help new and potential members on their way in marquetry.

In this video, I show how I made a mobile phone case from a solid piece of mahogany. The back is made from ply, and I did some marquetry on it. 

We had a stall at the Northwood craft show, and some of the members talked to the general public about marquetry.

Relisted the object is to get new members. Personally, I believe that Marquetry is a good hobby to take up it's cheap and quite easy to start, there is so much that can be achieved for all ages.

As a member of the Harrow Marquetry Group, I get access to a store full of veneers that they have collected over the years.

In this Video, I show you how I store my fingers in my woodwork workshop at home.