veneer marquetry!!

During my visit to several wood shops i saw long thin wooden beadings. These had some designs on them. It wasnt the design that caught my eye but i was curious to know what technique was used to do that. They said they didnt know how but just that it came like that from China!Just today i found out what its called and how its done!Its called Marquetry and its beautiful!

Marquetry is the art of inlaying different woods, and other natural materials to create a picture. To inlay is to set a material onto another surface, but recessed in so that inlayed material is at the same level as the surface. Most of the time the inlayed material is wood but it could be ivory, mother-of-pearl, tortoise shells, bark, straw, stone, metal, gems, etc. All the peculiarities, grain, knots, defects, etc. are used in the overall effect of the picture. Marquetry is often found on the finest furniture. It has been around for thousands of years, and today is considered something of a dying art. Making these beautiful pictures is a long tedious process. Each piece has to be cut out with the utmost attention to detail. Then they have to be assembled, recut, and so on. For the finest works of art 10,000 man-hours is not unheard of. The pieces are normally cut a variety of ways. For thin wood veneers, a sharp hobbyist knife is often used. Various types of copping and jeweler saws are also employed, but most modern work is done with an electric scroll and band saws, routers, lasers. The process of picking, cutting, placing, and gluing can take forever. The majority of people who do this, do it as a hobby!