Backyard Birds – Part 12

My marquetry design included a book resting on the windowsill. My dad suggested that I outsource the marquetry letters on the book to someone who has a laser cutter. It’s very hard to cut letters, because the lines have to be really precise and the veneer is prone to breaking when making small letters. I was planning to take his advice and get one of his woodworking friends to make the letters for me, but I figured I’d give it a try myself first.

For my first attempt, I used a slightly grayish holly veneer for the background and bog oak veneer for the letters. Bog oak is oak pulled out of peat bogs. The lack of oxygen in peat bogs prevents the wood from decaying. Over decades, the wood becomes dark brown, almost black. It is nearly as dark as ebony but, in my opinion, much easier to cut on a scroll saw.

One of the worst things about marquetry letters is keeping track of all the tiny pieces. Before I started cutting out letters, I swept up the floor under the scroll saw so that if I dropped any of the little pieces, I would have an easier time finding them. I set up a clean station on the work bench where I could lay out all the letters on top of a printed version of the words. I still managed to drop the inside of an “A” while moving it the three feet from the saw to the bench. It bounced, and I ended up crawling around on the floor for half an hour before I finally found it.

I was pretty happy with my first attempt at the spine of the book, but later, as the project progressed, I realized that the dimensions should be slightly different.

So I re-did the spine. This time, I added my name and used a more yellow wood for the background.