Backyard Birds – Part 19

I left my panel in the press for the day, and in the evening, I took it out.

A few hours of sanding and scraping later, I had removed a lot of the veneer tape.

Removing the veneer tape revealed that some of the veneer in the marquetry image had not completely adhered to the substrate. There was a difference in sound when I ran my fingers over the panel: veneer that was not fully glued down sounded scratchy.

In particular, the curly ash on the lawn was not stuck down properly. That was likely because it was the thinest veneer that I used, and it had not been subjected to as much pressure in the press as the thicker veneers around it. I probably could have avoided this if I had sanded the whole panel before putting it in the press, but sanding loose veneer runs the risk of pulling the image apart.

I identified the places where the veneer had not adhered, and I cut into the veneer with an X-Acto knife along the grain line so that I could lift the veneer slightly. Then I smooshed wood glue under the veneer with the knife blade and pressed it with hand clamps. It was frustrating, but it worked.

I had decided to wait until I pressed the panel to finish the eyes on the birds and the squirrel. Rather than using marquetry to make tiny pupils or reflections, I drilled into the panel after it was on the substrate and glued tiny spears of ebony and holly into the holes to make the eyes. The glue that I used for the squirrel’s eye had some black dye in it, because I had already mixed up the black glue for something else. Once the glue had dried, I sanded the eyes down so that they were level with the rest of the panel.