Morning Glory on Trellis Marquetry

Likely I could Google this, but I know you will give a better explanation and maybe even a picture. Please explain sand shading. Thanks.

Carol Reed said:

Likely I could Google this, but I know you will give a better explanation and maybe even a picture. Please explain sand shading. Thanks.

Click to expand...

When you do marquetry, the image will appear more "realistic" if you can put some shadows into the elements. Petals of flowers will appear better delineated and the flower will appear more realistic with shadows than without. Without shading, the flower will appear "flat". "Shading" the veneer is done by heating sand to a fairly hot state and then sticking the veneer into the sand so that the part of the veneer that you want to darken is in the sand. The hot sand darkens the veneer because it "burns" it. You need to be careful because if you leave the veneer in the sand too long the veneer turns to ash and you ruin the piece (the shaded part will fall apart when you try to handle it).

There's a bunch of issues - the sand needs to be hot enough to shade the veneer in about 5 to 10 seconds so you can get the work done. But if you get the sand too hot, the veneer will burn before you know it. Also, the temperature of the sand is a gradient - that it, it's hotter at the bottom than at the top so you have to be careful as you insert the veneer into the sand to not let it touch the bottom of the pan or it'll burn before you know it. Inserting too little will just mean the veneer won't shade and you can do it again.

Different species of wood shade differently (some fast, some slow) so I like to use a test piece before sticking the actual pieces into the sand.

I did a tutorial on sand shading which you can see here. I did that quite a long time ago and I'd change some of the tutorial if I was doing it now, but as you probably know, it's hard to go back and fix those tutorials. The tutorial may not explain everything but it'll give you an idea.

The other issue with sand shading in marquetry is deciding where to put the shadows but that's an artistic question, not a technical question.

Mike

[Here's two closeup pictures of flowers which show how sand shading is used to make "shadows" to outline the petals of a flower and to give depth.]

Thanks, Mike. That was enlightening.

Here's one of those Morning Glory panels glued up. It has a coat of dewaxed shellac on it. I have the other one in press now. Very difficult to get a good picture.

Mike

I really like how the colors turned out after finishing it. Very nice!

Mike

Another thread I missed while on the trip. I thought I was keeping up on the Ipad but sure missed this. It is absolutely beautiful and you are very talented indeed. And I love the explanations you gave to the question asked..

Stunning Work..

Garry

Wow

Okay, here are the two panels mounted and with a coat of dewaxed shellac. One has the lighter wood for the trellis. Let me know which you prefer now that the banding and border has been applied - along with the shellac. My own preference is for the one with the lighter wood.

The extra picture is of the back of the one with the lighter trellis.

Mike

I'm still partial to the lighter one myself, but both look very good.

Definitely the lighter one

They are both very nice, but I too like the lighter one more, it just "pops" better to my eye.