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miniature marquetry

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Assembling an Art Nouveau Spring

After researching the full-scale jardinière, sketching the designs, and carving the base for the miniature jardinière, artist Linda LaRoche created the basin of the jardinière by hollowing and carving blocks of plum wood to shape the sides. The next challenge was creating the delicate animals, people, and foliage that decorate the curved walls of the container.

Using a method known as marquetry, LaRoche sketched the design onto the basin’s wooden surface and then traced a copy of the design onto paper. LaRoche placed the paper copy over thin pieces of wood called veneer in order to carve an outline of the design into the wood. This process left LaRoche with hundreds of tiny pieces of carved wood that perfectly matched the original sketch. Now for the fun part! LaRoche had an intricate jigsaw puzzle to complete; she assembled the tiny veneer pieces over the sketched design on the basin’s surface. One side of the basin’s design consists of over 150 tiny pieces of wood; each was individually laid and glued on the surface, taking LaRoche two and a half years (out of the fourteen needed for the entire piece) to complete… now that’s some miniature marquetry!

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