For thousands of years, a wide variety of wood has been used to cover floors, walls, and ceilings. For nearly as long, talented artisans have been practicing the craft of inlay. Whether sophisticated or whimsical, simple or elaborate, the inlay process begins in the mind of the artist. The design stage could require intricate drawings, full-scale mock-ups, templates;and patterns. And whether the inlay is made of a handful of parts or a hundred tiny pieces, careful attention goes into selecting an array of wood species that achieves the desired combination of color, grain, and texture. Only after this extensive preparation is complete can the inlay artist begin to cut and install each piece. Some of the intricate work pictured here took more than 300 man-hours of installation time alone.
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