The Marquetry Shack

Earlier this year we noticed a gentlemen based out of Manchester, UK, who had been tweeting about his use of our Thin Air Press vacuum bag for his marquetry work. We contacted him through his Twitter handle @marquetryshack to find out more.

Turns out The Marquetry Shack is a hidden gem in the crafting community, run by long-time educator and artist, Ian Smith.  Ian is a craftsmen in the truest sense of the word. He started doing doing marquetry at the age of 10, and still chooses to do all of his projects by hand... just the way we like it!

Ian had some amazing things to say about using the TAP bag to press down his veneers onto a solid substrate. He also sent us photos of some recently finished projects, and even made a video showing us how he uses the 26" x 28" TAP bag in his marquetry work. 

*BUILDER TIP* from Ian Smith

"Because marquetry veneers are so thin they can get easily warped and gnarly. When you stick them down there is a danger that they will blister. My solution is to soak the warped veneer, place it between to mdf sheets, then put it in the TAP for 24 hours. Result - a perfect flat veneer."

We would like to send a HUGE thank you to Ian at The Marquetry Shack for submitting this great content and the kind words that went along with it.

Make sure to check out more of his bespoke marquetry work!

http://themarquetryshack.com/

Give him a 'like' on Facebook here

Follow on Twitter @marquetryshack

Comments

[Ildamjones]

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[Ildamjones]

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[Kenneth Taber]

Thanks for posting the Beautiful work and techniques of Ian Smith! It would never have occurred to me to soak wrinkled veneers in water before vac-pressing, as my experiments with water-base tints on raw veneer always led to a wrestling match to unroll the result. I have since used a light mist of 3 to 1 water and glycerine, which softens the grain without creating a wooden tube. Each to our own methods, the results he gets are Fantastic !