Marquetry Box

Hi all,
I finally finished the marquetry box and although it came out okay I wasn't blown away by the results. The effort required doesn't balance well with the outcome. To be honest, I found the whole thing a bit tedious and anybody who can make complete marquetry pictures from veneer is a superstar.

In the box pictured below I only had to cut a few pieces of veneer but that was enough for me. I thought veneer would be easy to cut, especially as I'd forked out money an expensive craft knife, but it wasn't. I had to make several passes with the knife before the cut was complete.

Anyway here are the photos of the finished box.

In the photo above you can see the centre inlay which is a piece of 6mm ply wood which has had a light veneer stuck to it, I then used various other veneers to create the image of the fuchsia flower. Except for the stamen of course, which are marks made with my pyrography iron.

The box lid and base are Mahogany and the box itself is cut from a piece of maple.

The image on the underside of the lid is just plain pyrography and somehow I thing it's got more charm than the marquetry.

Sorry if this post seems a bit negative, but we all learn through our experiences. I thought marquetry was going to be a bit of a panacea but it wasn't to be. I'm not ruling out doing a bit more marquetry  in the future, not least because I've got a load of veneer to use up, but I won't be rushing to do it.

I'm not sure what my next project will be but I will bring it to you as soon as I can.