Backyard Birds – Part 15

Making the marquetry squirrel was a complicated process because of how the squirrel is perched on the pole.

I needed to make the portions of the squirrel that were behind the pole first, then overlay the pole over it, and then overlay the squirrel’s feet onto the pole.

Further complicating matters, I didn’t want to use my usual marquetry process to cut the pole into the background. Cutting a long, straight line on the scroll saw is very difficult, and any imperfection would be really obvious in the final image. So instead of using the scroll saw, I cut the pole into the background using a straight edge and an X-Acto knife.

I didn’t have to cut the entire pole into the background at once (thankfully), because I knew where the trompe-l'œil window would cover portions of the pole. So I could inlay the curved portions of the pole separately from the straight portion.

Once the pole was inlaid into the panel, I added the rest of the squirrel’s legs. (Note: There is a bunch of newspaper stuck to parts of the panel because I sprayed it with flattener and put it in the press with newspaper on top of it. The flattener has a little bit of glue in it, and so the newspaper gets stuck to the veneer, especially on areas where the veneer is thicker.)