There are few arts, indeed, in which so good effects can be produced with so little labor and at so little expense as this. Even those who are unable to design or draw can, with a little thought, arrange simple patterns in attractive groups. Leaves and fruit, even without shading, are easily represented.
DESIGN FOR A BOX-LID OR PANEL.
It is not difficult to learn to engrave, or run lines, on wood. Any one can learn to do it after a few days' practice. It is done with a small triangular-pointed tool, such as is used by wood-engravers. These gravers, of the best quality, cost fifty cents each. The lines of leaves and flowers, and a hundred other details, look best in marquetry when they are executed in this manner. I have just been examining a piece of marquetry two hundred and fifty years old. The inlaying is the best of the work, and most of it is done in lines so as to give it the appearance of a colored engraving.
The work, when finished, may be rubbed down and oiled and polished. Or it can be varnished. Mastic varnish is best for this purpose, but it is the most difficult of all kinds to apply evenly.
There is still another kind of inlaying which is not included in the foregoing paper. To make it, take a board of hard, wood, well seasoned, and lay on it a coat of thick varnish. Take the sawed-out pieces, which should be of the thinnest tortoise-shell, ivory or wood, and dispose them on the board. When the first varnish is dry, lay on, for a ground, varnish very much thickened with flour or color. When this is dry, repeat it; and so on, until the ground thus made is as high as the pattern.
A SUGGESTION FOR THE DECORATION OF A CHEST IN VENETIAN MARQUETRY.
When inlaying is done with pieces of stone, it is called mosaic. It will be observed that in making solid marquetry, all the difficulty is limited to marking out a pattern on a smooth piece of hard white wood, and then tracing it carefully with the point of a penknife or with a cutting-wheel. The whole work is not much harder than cutting out a picture with the point of a penknife. The dye is more apt to spread evenly if, in applying it, you first give the surface a thin wash of water.
It should be remembered that where two lines are run together in parallels, as for instance, in long stems, the wood lying between is very apt to break off. This can only be prevented by using the point of a thin penknife-blade or a very small wheel, with very great care. For some work a wheel the third of an inch diameter should be used. In cases where the design is very delicate, the line need be merely scratched into the wood. Any indenting which will restrain the flow of the dyes, and indicate a distinct outline is sufficient. Great attention should be paid to this. Do not expect to make a perfect piece of marquetry at a first effort.