Craig_T

1stwoodstone_man, I missed your question about where to learn marquetry earlier but here's an answer.

Paul Schurch has two videos and a couple books to go with the videos that show how to do everything from bookmatching and radial matching to marquetry. www.schurchwoodwork.com. He also has classes in a number of places around the country and I highly recommend him as a teacher if you really want to learn marquetry. A one week class with him can put you way ahead of the curve.

Silas Kopf has a new book on marquetry with many great images and some short how-to sections in the back of the book. This is another great resource and showcases Silas' style of marquetry. He also has a how-to video available that is quite good. www.silaskopf.com

The marquetry books by Pierre Ramond are probably the best overall resource for learning about marquetry. They showcase historical methods, tools and materials along with lots of images of highly complex marquetry. They are not inexpensive books but they are the foundation for lots of learning. There are 4 books and they're available from the Getty Museum and other places. Start off with just the first individual book titled 'Marquetry' and wait to buy the three book set in case you decide marquetry isn't for you. http://www.getty.edu/museum/

Hope that helps,
Craig

Hacker, I buy all my mother of pearl, abalone and reconstituted stone from JoAnn at Rescue Pearl www.rescuepearl.com. She also has some of the necessary tools though Stewart-MacDonald www.stewmac.com has a wider selection of tools for doing inlay. The acrylester and other plastics are available from Rockler, Woodcraft and several online sources, just search for pen turning blanks. Good luck.
Craig

The file is also called a 'smooth finish milled tooth hand file' or auto body file and is available from McMaster Carr. Just do a search for 'hand files' and scroll down to get to the smooth finish file area. They are about $25 each and last a very long time. Lie Nielsen has begun selling smaller versions for hand work that have handles on them but they are smaller and more expensive than a full size file. They do have several different shapes that would be useful for joinery work though.
Craig

Tom, I use dyed poplar for all the green leaves. You can get it in a number of shades of green and the color seems to last, at least it hasn't faded on any of the sample pieces I have had laying around for a few years. I haven't tried dyeing my own veneer, there are so many colors available that it doesn't seem necessary, but you can read how to do it in several of the marquetry books. Check B and B Rare Woods or Anita Marquetry for colored veneers, they both have a large selection.
Craig

BStev, I get the reconstituted stone and also mother of pearl from Rescue Pearl in California. www.rescuepearl.com JoAnn is very helpful and has a great selection of materials worth experimenting with, her materials are geared toward guitar makers and such but work well in furniture and there are lots of colors available in stone and pearl.

The stone is hard and brittle to cut but can be carefully cut with a scroll saw or by hand with a jewelers saw, just make sure to use dust collection as the dust probably isn't good for you. I have experimented with several different stones and they do cut differently depending upon the variety of stone. Some are softer and others are more prone to chipping. They are also thick and need to be inlayed then filed flush like you would do with mother of pearl. I glue the stone with epoxy colored to match the stone. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the comments. No problems with twist on any bent lamination I have done so far, probably because of all the layers in the lamination. I think this piece took about 150 hours start to finish including the drawing time for the marquetry. I built it at the same time as another piece of the same shape but different style. That one is at the following link.
http://ctfinefurniture.com/portfolio/cabinets/granite%20sideboard.php

Thanks for the compliments guys, always nice to have people like your work. Mobius, I am in San Diego, Ca.
Craig