Wood Inlay - New Techniques

New Techniques

During the 80's Georges Vriz developed a new technique called piercing. The idea is to layer two veneer layers on top of each other and sand through the top one, to the point of fiber transparency. This technique has been used mainly in France, by professionals and students of the Ecole Boulle. In the US the technique has been used at the American School of French Marquetry by one of the teachers, the artist Patrice Lejeune. The school staff is also proposing a new name for this technique : "Given that 'piercing' is an unfortunate mistake in the veneering world, we chose to use the word "Fusion" instead, by which term the artist expresses his intention of sanding through the veneer as a decorative, textural effect, not as a mistake." At the American School of French Marquetry, Patrice Lejeune uses a technique he calls "sprinkling": by using waste - sawdust, shavings, scrapings etc. - as pigments, to create a range of diverse effects. Arguably this is no longer marquetry in the pure sense of the term, since it spills over into textured painting, even collage (to a limited extent) but, as a byproduct of modern marquetry making, we decided to include it in this thread. This technique also was invented by Georges Vriz, who employed it on a series of large panels exhibited in Paris at the Ecole de la Bonne Graine in 1996.

Amongst new techniques applied to marquetry we may include laser cutting, where the design is drawn or imported as a CAD or vector file and each piece is cut separately; each different species of wood -and thickness- may need a specific adjustment of the beam's power; the offset will determine the gap between the pieces and, in some cases, the beam will leave a dark edge due to the very high heat required by the process.