Boulle Marquetry: Two Panels For The Price Of One

摘要

With most inlay or marquetry, you create one panel at a time. With boulle work, you stack two contrasting materials together, cut a design in them on the scrollsaw, and then interchange the parts. The lighter parts go into the darker background, the darker parts go into the lighter background, and the thin sawkerf between the pieces is filled by dark glue. In the end, you get two panels from one cutting. The process is named after Andre Charles Boulle, cabinetmaker to Louis XIV of France. He didn't invent the technique, but he popularized it 300 years ago by building very elaborate pieces for his aristocratic clientele. Boulle would often completely cover the surface of a piece with a dazzling interplay of light and dark material. But the technique also can be used in a more limited way to embellish a cabinet door or the back splat of a chair. These stylized flower panels could be used in a checkerboard pattern.