Larry Ciesla Woodworking


can a 9 year old do italian marquetry?


You bet and here is the proof!



I have triplett granddaughters and Corina is the one who loves art and drawing.  She is a very creative little girl, and with her 10th birthday fast approaching, she asked if I could teach her to do marquetry so she could make two jewelry boxes for her two sisters.  We spent two delightful days in the shop working on these two marquetry images.  All I did was instruct her on what to do, give her a brief demonstration, give her some practice material to learn with, then watch as she did all this herself. 


The first lesson was learning how to work with thin veneer.  Here she is using a veneer saw and straight edge to cut the birds eye maple that will become the background.

I've described the process I use to create marquetry on this page of my web site.  I learned how to do marquetry from Paul Schurch who has two very excellent dvds that thoroughly explains the process.  I also took a class in advanced veneering from Paul at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking

In this picture Corina is cutting a flower petal from the packet.

Working at the scroll saw.

A picture of patience and concentration!

You're never too young to learn to sand!

She helped with the gluing and assembly of the boxes.  She told me that this part was not as much fun as actually doing the marquetry!