Figured image, patterns from wood plates, different in texture, color, embedded in a wooden surface. Intarsia is done in the same way as inlay.
Features of intarsia: with intarsia, individual wooden plates that make up the pattern are tightly fitted along the edges, glued and inserted into the array of the object being decorated, where recesses equal to the thickness of the set are pre-selected with a cutting tool. The front side of the records is carefully smoothed and polished. The bottom surface is left rough for better adhesion to the base. With intarsia, solid wood of the product acts as a background for mosaic decorations.
Intarsia reached its peak during the Renaissance in Italy. Only in Florence in the middle of the 15th century. There were more than 80 workshops. Mosaics were used mainly to decorate church furniture and utensils. Decoration methods included geometric and floral patterns. Dark wood species were used for the background, light wood for the design, and vice versa. Intarsia originated in ancient Egypt, where wood with a beautiful texture and bright color began to be used for inlaying wooden products along with ivory, metal, mother-of-pearl, and stones.
The ancient Greeks, in order to change the color of wood, soaked it in oil, alum, and boiled it in paint. Sarcophagi were also made from cypress and cedar. They were decorated with ornaments of plant forms, using boxwood, maple, ironwood, and dogwood.
With the development of skill, ornamental compositions became more complex. Polygonal perspective images of city streets, scenes from everyday life, and historical events began to appear. In the production of plot sets, engraving, etching, and wood burning began to be used. From Italy, intarsia penetrated into France, Germany and other countries of Central Europe.
In a broad sense, intarsia refers to a type of decorative and applied art, which is a technique of inlaying wood onto wood. In a narrower sense, intarsia is three-dimensional mosaic paintings created by arranging different types of wood, playing with its shades and texture patterns. Let’s talk about the basic principles of this technique and its subtleties using the example of the “Goldfish” project.
Creating a mosaic picture involves three basic stages:
In general terms, intarsia looks quite simple. But in order for your work made using this technique to turn into a real work of art created with your own hands, it is important to know and be guided by certain subtleties:
The intarsia diagrams contain a lot of useful information, and if you know how to read it, you will significantly simplify the work process and improve its quality.
There are several options for transferring the intarsia pattern onto a wooden blank:
By testing different approaches, it is easy to choose the optimal template transfer option for yourself.
For cutting small parts, projects with sharp turns, and when working with soft or thin wood, #3 jigsaw blades are optimal. They will ensure a neat cut, with a minimum volume of sawn material, due to which small mosaic elements will fit tightly to each other.
For cutting hard wood and working with thick workpieces, use #5 or #7 saws. They are also suitable for sawing outer edges that will not be installed next to other elements.
If you want to avoid chipping on the back side, use files with a reverse (reverse) tooth. Blades with so-called “missing tooth”, remove chips more effectively, preventing their accumulation. Over time, the master learns to feel the characteristics of each file and finds his optimal standard.
Intarsia is a free technique in which there are no strict rules or canons. Wooden block mosaics can be varied with elements made of glass, stone or plastic. Feel free to liberally use stains, varnishes, oils and dyes to finish and paint your project.
Instead of ordinary mosaic elements, you can use complex parts in which one type of wood is carefully cut into another. Such textural breaks give the project additional originality and attractiveness. The texture of each mosaic element can be worked out separately using burning, carving techniques or using a drill.
Free drawings and diagrams for intarsia are presented in sufficient quantities on the Internet, especially in its English-language segment. But if you wish, you can create a mosaic template yourself using a picture or photograph. You can use a special program that converts a photo into a diagram. A classic example of such a service is online.rapidresizer.com.
With minimal skills in working with graphic editors, for example, Adobe Photoshop, you can independently convert a photograph into a contour drawing, which will become a template for cutting.
Intarsia is the process of inlaying wood onto wood. The technology is such that in the recesses of the wooden base, inlays are also made of wood, which differ from the base in texture and color. Quite often, intarsia is called inlay. This is not a mistake, although the latter concept implies a more expanded list of materials used as tabs.
The implementation of the intarsia technique involves a tight fit of individual wooden plates that make up the pattern along the edges. Then they are glued together and placed into a pre-prepared recess in the surface of the product, equal to the thickness of the set. The front side of the plates is carefully smoothed and polished, and the bottom part is left rough for better adhesion to the base.
From the history. Intarsia first appeared in Ancient Egypt. The development of this type of decoration was due to the lack of abundant forest plantations; as a result, wood was imported from other countries and was expensive. Therefore, wood began to be used along with precious and semi-precious stones and ivory. Due to the ease of processing, the richness of decorative effects, the strength of the connection with the base and the organic fusion with the surface of the product, wood gradually began to prevail over other materials used by craftsmen when decorating wooden products.
Intarsia reached a high level in Ancient Rome and Greece. Sarcophagi, made of cedar, yew and cypress, were decorated with ornaments of complex shapes using boxwood, maple, ironwood, holly and dogwood. To change the color of the wood, it was subjected to special treatment: impregnation with oil or alum, boiling in paint.
The greatest flowering of intarsia occurred during the Renaissance in Italy. Thus, in the middle of the 15th century, at least 80 workshops operated in Florence, producing products with mosaic decorations. The main motifs are floral and geometric patterns. Dark wood species were used as a background, and light wood species were used for the design, or vice versa.
Over time, ornamental compositions became more complex, became multicolored, and perspective images of streets, cities, some scenes from everyday human life, and historical events appeared. For story sets, engraving, etching, and firing of wood were used to change its color.
Further, intarsia began to be used in France, Germany and other countries of Central Europe. Thus, in Germany in the period of the 16th - early 17th centuries, the interiors of public buildings were decorated with mosaic panels. The craftsmen quite often used engraving; elements made of ivory and other materials were included in the image.
The peculiarity of intarsia is that the wood of the product acts as a background for mosaic decorations. Due to the complexity and labor-intensive nature of the inlay-intarsion technique, it was used purely for decorating expensive products that were made from valuable wood species. Special attention was paid to the finishing of all surfaces. The background was never inferior in beauty to the decoration. Products decorated with intarsia belonged to the richest people.
Intarsia (Italian intarsio) is a type of decorative and applied art, inlay done by wood on wood. Intarsia originated in the Ancient East, in Egypt, and reached a very high level in Ancient Greece and Rome, where ornaments were made from maple, boxwood, holly, ironwood, and dogwood.
Recesses are made in the wooden base into which wooden plates differing in color and texture are laid out. The plates forming the pattern are tightly fitted to each other, glued together and inserted into the object to be decorated. The outside of the set is then carefully polished.
Kathy Wise I have always loved animals, despite growing up in the city. As a teenager, she moved with her family to rural Michigan and almost immediately fell in love with the country lifestyle. Katie believes that she inherited her interest in art from her mother, who was also an artist. As a child, she diligently carved animal figures from soap and later from wood, while her mother painted landscapes and portraits. 
Art classes in school and college deepened her interest in art and sculpture. A ceramics class in college, in which Katie added clay animals to pots, led to the creation of many other animal figurines. Soon students began asking her to make something for them. Katie graduated with honors from college with an Associate of Arts degree in commercial art. 
Katie sculpted her first animals from low-fire ceramics and sold them at fairs and exhibitions. Her work featured all breeds of dogs and many other animals, and each figurine was one of a kind. She worked with her mother, who painted her figures. Store owners immediately began asking Katie to sell them these wonderful animals. She soon worked with more than seventy stores, including Mole Hole, America's largest chain of collectible gift stores. 
In 1983, Gene Friedman (CEO of Enesco Corporation) first saw Katie figurines in a Seattle gift shop. The man who brought Precious Moments to the world saw the potential in her work and contacted Katie to start the first of her many merch lines. She continued to come up with new animal figurines and souvenirs for companies such as Simson, Westland, United Design and Encore Group. Over the years, Katie has created more than a thousand different products in more than forty series, distributed all over the world. 
In the early 90s, Katie created a series of realistic wild animals cast in bronze. At the Detroit Center for the Arts and Crafts, she learned the entire casting process for bronze sculptures, including mold making, wax casting, casting, final sanding, and patina creation. Her bronzes have been exhibited in Scottsdale and Michigan. 
The series of bronze wild animals has won several awards, including at the Blue Water International Art Exhibition. Now Katie makes bronze sculptures only by special order. She has won first place in the Intarsia and Wood Carving category for the past three years (2006-2008) at the Design in Wood show in San Diego. 
Throughout her artistic career, Katie has created both two- and three-dimensional works in clay, stone, and wood. She designed and carved a life-size carousel horse from wood for her little daughter. Katie has created many panels using wood and other materials. Her art education was very useful to her when working with two-dimensional products. All photographs, backgrounds and graphics on her website and catalogs were designed by Katie herself. 
Katie first began sketching intarsia artwork for her stepfather (Phil MacDonald) over 13 years ago. When his clients asked for a wood inlay in the shape of a special breed of dog or their pet, Phil would ask Kathy to create the design. She started selling them and found that wood carvers really liked them. 
It offers the widest range of sketches of various dog breeds. Thanks to our experience in creating dog figurines, each sketch is individual like no other on the market. She has developed a beginner's intarsia kit that makes it easy to create unique mosaics. 
In the fall of 2004, Cathy's first article appeared in Woodcarver's Workshop magazine (Fox Chapel), featuring her inlaid Boston Terrier with step-by-step instructions. Since then, her articles have appeared in every issue, and to date there are already 18 of them. 
These articles featured items such as a bird decorated wreath, a tortoiseshell cat, an Arabian charger, a maple leaf frame, floral crowns, a turkey and many others. Katie's work has been featured on the cover five times. She was asked to write a two-part article for Wood Carving Illustrated on how to carve a bulldog bulletin board. 
Her articles have received wonderful reviews and she plans to continue writing for Fox Chapel Co. Katie has already published one book: “Intarsia and Woodworking.” She is currently working on the second one. Kathy accepts special commissions for intarsia work, including murals and large wall hangings. 
The art of inlay has been known to mankind since ancient times. You can use different materials for inlay (ceramics, marble, metal, etc.), but one of the most pliable materials is wood. That's why wood inlay on wood (marquetry And intarsia) is very popular among craftsmen.
Of the two types of inlay on wood, intarsia appeared earlier - it can rightfully be considered the “mother” of marquetry. When performing intarsia, wooden plates of different colors and textures crash into the wooden surface, which allows you to get a complex figured image.
It is believed that intarsia originated in Ancient Egypt, where wood was first used for inlay along with more “noble” materials. But intarsia reached its peak in Italy during the Renaissance. This technique was most often used to decorate church furniture and utensils.
Initially, the predominant patterns were geometric and floral, but gradually the complexity of the work done using the intarsia technique increased. Craftsmen began to make whole paintings made of wood. In order to make them more impressive, they used not only a “play” on the contrast of light and dark wood, but also firing, engraving, and etching of wood.
How is a product made using the intarsia technique? First, a drawing is selected and a sketch is made, which is divided into individual elements (plates) - like a mosaic. These elements are then cut from wood of different colors and textures. The main (background) for the product is solid wood, in which recesses for mosaic pieces are cut out using a special cutting tool.
The front side of the wooden plates is sanded and polished, and the back side is left rough so that it adheres better to the background. Then you need to tightly fit the plates along the edges, glue them and put them into the base array. The product is ready! If the mosaic pieces protrude above the base, this is called relief intarsia. And if they are on the same level with her, this is picturesque intarsia.
Marquetry is simplified technique intarsia. In fact, this is also a mosaic made of wood, but the mosaic pieces are made of thin veneer, assembled together along the edges, like a puzzle, glued and glued onto a flat base.
Marquetry is a less labor-intensive and expensive technique than intarsia, but this does not mean that it is too simple. For making a product using the marquetry technique, it is also important accuracy, patience and artistic taste.
Used for marquetry natural veneer- single-layer facing plywood, made from various types of wood. The thickness of the veneer can vary (from 0.5 to 1.2 mm), and its color and shade depend on the type of wood that was used to make the veneer. In addition, chemical methods are used to color wood - for example, staining.
As with the intarsia technique, you first need to think over the pattern and draw a drawing (template) on thick paper. Then, using special tools, mosaic pieces are cut out of the veneer and coated with wood glue. Then the “puzzle” needs to be glued onto a paper template-drawing, tightly fitted to each other. Having assembled the mosaic, it is turned over and pasted onto the base - the product to be decorated.
The finished product is covered with paper and left for several hours. put under a press. After two days, the marquetry is polished and covered with several layers of varnish or special mastic. After a day, the mosaic is polished using polishing paste and fabric (cloth, felt, drape).
You can do marquetry a little differently, embedding mosaic elements into a veneer background. The resulting mosaic is secured with paper coated with glue and pasted onto the surface of the product to be decorated. This type of marquetry is closer in technique to its “parent” - intarsia.
Marquetry and intarsia are used to decorate furniture, in the manufacture of original paintings, panels and souvenirs. In order to learn how to work in these techniques, you need not only accuracy and artistic taste. It is very important to know how certain types of wood will “behave” when processed, varnished, etc. But if you try really hard, you can end up getting a real work of art.
