shared by Tom Abbott

Some time ago I was attracted to a picture of birds sitting on a wire. I wanted to reproduce the picture with marquetry; however, the birds had more detail than I would have enjoyed creating.

Then I got the idea of letting the outline of the bird – an iconic image – help me find veneer which sufficiently matched the bird’s detail. I cut along the outline of a bird on a paper pattern, creating a window in the paper that was the bird’s shape. Then I moved the pattern over veneer until I located an area that resembled a bird.

The result was a greatly simplified but effective reproduction of the original picture. Several people ordered the reproduction from me, and for me, that confirmed the effectiveness of my approach. Since then, I have made projects which contained iconic images of other animals, which I located on veneer by looking through a paper window.