Getting Ready for the 18th C Parquetry Workshop

I’m spending a couple of days away from my own projects in the studio and preparing the classroom for the upcoming parquetry workshop this coming Friday-Sunday (still one space available for anyone who wants to come to Shangri-La during some magnificent weather – upper 70s by day, upper 50s by night).

It’s going to be a lot of fun, in part because the structure of the event is different than I have pursued before.  In most workshops, even those that are techniques-based, the structure is to present a narrowly defined set of exercises with the goal of accomplishing a specific project.  The project can be large or small, but getting “finished” is dialed in to the equation.

My objective this time is much different in that we will be engaging in practices to learn techniques such that the participants can integrate them into their own work once they get back home.  We may or may not get to “finished” but we will definitely get to the “I have mastered this technique” point.

Parquetry is all about precision sawing and trimming so much time will be spend deriving and constructing sawing and planing jigs.

The basic tool menu is preposterously small; take a block plane, a fine back saw, a 3-60-90 plastic triangle, and a compass or divider, add a little glue and you are ready to hit the ground with classical parquetry.