|
BOARS HEAD A&S: SCA AMBIANCE CATEGORY. FOR DISPLAY ONLY
Faux Intarsia: Refurbishing Two Thrift Store Finds with Wooden Appliqué
Dame Merouda Pendray Don Miguel de Montoya el Artista
1-4. Intarsia, and its similar cousin, marquetry, is a decorative technique employed from ancient Egypt, through Japan and China, and into the modern era. In Western Europe during the SCA's time focus, intarsia hit its high point in the Italian Renaissance, where it was used on furnishings, panels, even as an entire room covering, as for Federico da Montefeltro's ducal palace (commonly known as the Gubbio Studiolo). These two projects, however, are intended for simple item decoration, as might be seen on the decorated chests of well-to-do families. Such things are far easier to export than entire rooms. Do note, however, that this is an experiment in creating a look-alike technique to refurbish modern items for SCA use. Ultimately, it's for an SCA atmosphere and should not be seen as an attempt at authentic reproduction, but rather, as an attempt to use period-based techniques and designs to modify the modern. It's meant to be a simple solution that allows an artisan to get the look without investing the extensive amount of time required by true intarsia. 5. Intarsia generally requires the use of a number of typical woodworking tools. In period, an artist would use chisels, saws, the skin of a dogfish, planes, scrapers, glue to do the actual woodworking, plus a drawing, dyes, bleaches, and heat to create further artistic effect, therefore requiring a plethora of appropriate tools for those arts—lead points, papers (including a period transfer paper!), period dyes and mordants or bleaches (oak galls, brazilwood, stale urine, et cetera), heated metal, and so forth—and finally, varnishing the wood as a last stage with one of a variety of varnishes know at the time, for instance, copal or sandarac (McNutt, 12/10/2005; Halstead, 12/10/2005; Merrifield, 1999; Limming, 1573). However, as this is a modern piece intended to simulate the look of an intarsia medallion applied to a larger piece, the tools and materials I selected represent an echo of the principals rather than an imitation of the practices. I used flexible plywood as my base, and the following tools and materials to decorate it: Wood Stain: substituting for the bleaching and dying processes of period intarsia, I used Minwax brand golden oak, red mahogany, and ebony wood stains. As the ebony stain was very difficult to work with (and looked terrible, to boot) I added... Paint: simple Testors brand black enamel. The ebony stain was unworkable in this technique; it penetrated well past its boundaries, ruining several lighter areas, and would do so even over extra layers of stain.. Varnish: finishing coats; a modern clear polycrylic. Wood Preparation and Cutting Tools: As this was flexible plywood, it didn't require anything extensive. We used X-acto knives, rulers, sandpaper, and a belt sander to prepare and shape the medallions. Artist rendering tools: used to create the drawing, transfer it to the wood, stain/paint the colors: brushes, circular templates, rulers, transfer paper, pen, pencil, erasers Wood Burning tool: heated metal instrument typically used in pyrography. Application tools and materials: Used to apply the medallions to the items: clamps, pressure buffers, glue, ruler, ruled square.
6. Intarsia is a woodworking technique that creates a pictorial effect by placing carved woods of different colors and grains into a wooden substrate that has been carved out to receive these intricately shaped, exotic woods. It is not the same as marquetry or inlay; marquetry is bits of wooden veneer fit together like a puzzle and applied to a flat wooden surface; inlay is like intarsia in that it is placed into the wooden surface, but it is generally not pictorial, it's just lines or little geometric patterns (Burke, 12/10/2005). Intarsia could be relatively simple or very complex, but the important thing to remember is that it's representational. At the most complex end, we see shading by applying dyes and by burning the wood in an attempt to create a more painterly look and bring greater variety to the work. However, again, most of the techniques used in this project were the modern descendants of some of these older practices. First, I prepped a large-ish piece of flexible plywood, sanding it to what seemed a reasonable texture. Next, I grabbed pencil and paper and drew out a “cartoon” drawing: the drawing I would use to guide me in creating the actual piece. I used transfer paper to create some portions of the cartoon, other portions I redrew directly to the wood. I then used the wood burning tool to score and color the pattern into the wood (pyrography is period, although not often used; see bibliography for a list of references for further information). It was a big reminder of why artists in period rarely committed to pyrography as a primary craft; it would be far more difficult to do this if I had to frequently reheat the burning tool. I then applied the stain to the first (the square) medallion by applying it directly to the wood with a brush. This caused a great deal of problem, and the stains very often wicked past the breaks the burnt lines were supposed to create in the wood. Some parts of the medallion had to be scraped away to get back to bare wood. The problem was so great with the ebony stain that I switched to black enamel paint for the second, round medallion. The wicking in the first medallion's wreath was also quite bad, but rather than scrape that back to the bare wood, I decided to appreciate the mottled look of some parts of the wreath and just emphasize its outline with the black enamel. When I started to stain the second medallion, after it had been through the wood burning, I took a rag and applied a coat of golden oak varnish to the whole thing, straight away. This first layer reduced the thirst, and the subsequent wicking, of the wood substantially. It did affect the color of the red mahogany stain, but I liked it. I then applied the red mahogany stain and the black enamel with a brush. I cleaned my brushes with a dip in mineral spirits and a dip in acetone. It was the end of my brushes. ::sigh:: When the stain/paint was completely dry, I varnished the medallions. After applying about 3 layers (apply, let dry, apply, let dry, et cetera—it took quite a while), we decided to cut the medallions out. At this point, Don Miguel stepped in. I prepped the surfaces of the box and the book panels and he cut out and shaped the medallions. He used an X-acto knife and ruler to cut about half way through the wood, then snapped the plywood along these deep scores. This was all he needed to do for the square medallion; for the round medallion, he marker a “do not pass” line with a circular template, and then, after cutting the square, cut it down to an octagon. He took the octagon to the belt sander and sanded the remaining angles out. Once the medallions were completed, he applied them to the items we were refurbishing. We centered them on the box/panel, and then he glued them down, removing excess glue with a brush, and setting them up to dry under pressure by clamping flat planes to the box top and the panel. We let that dry overnight, and, when everything seemed dry, added a few more layers of varnish to complete the look. Miguel put the box top back on the box, et voila! Two ugly thrift store items were now two fine SCA accessories. I like this technique a lot; it is a way for someone who is primarily a paint-based artist to embellish wood with the natural tones and beauties of wood without having to invest in the tools and time needed to do true intarsia. I think these two projects might have been more intarsia-like if I'd taken the time to hollow out a space in the wooden base items to receive the medallions, but the wood is so thin that I fear I would have wrecked the items, particularly given my current skills as a wood worker. That would be something to think about for future projects, however. And I am interested in expanding this technique. I am already planning to grow marigolds in my garden next year (which will make a yellow or an olive green stain), as well as harvesting buckthorn berries (a bright green) and black walnuts (very dark brown) to see what happens when I dye wood. I also think that this technique can be improved by using a better wood, and I'm curious as to how an oil paint (more period) might look in place of the enamel, how finishing just with a coat of linseed oil might affect the look, and how a more period varnish might look.
REFERENCES Anonymous. Intarsia: A Brief History http://www.crs.co.nz/woodskills/intarsia.htm Accessed 12/09/05. It reflects all the issues I have with most of the “history of Intarsia” articles I have thus far found, however. They're all fairly general, all say pretty much the same thing, and all based on a 1903 source. Hm. I'll have to track that down. Anonymous. The History of Intarsia. http://www.tbirdranch.com/Intarsiafiles/intarshist.html accessed 12/09/05 Anonymous. Late Italian Renaissance Cassone with Intarsia Inlay Panel. http://www.faccents.com/item648.html Accessed 12/10/05 Barili, Antonio. Self-portrait in Intarsia, 1502. http://www.intarsie.ch/ or http://www.intarsien.net/dissertation.html (in German). Accessed 12/09/05 Burke, Jane. A History of Marquetry. http://www.gtcreations.com/history.html Accessed 12/09/05. Gullik, Michael, introduction. The Arte of Limming: A Reproduction of the 1573 Edition Newly Imprinted. Society of Scribes and Illuminators. Facsimile reprint. Deals with artists materials, including formulas on making varnish for wood and transfer paper. Hart, George. Fra Giovanni's Intarsia Polyhedra http://www.georgehart.com/virtual-polyhedra/intarsia.htm Accessed 12/09/05. Notable not only for the great examples of the art, but also for the green tinges and fine veins of the grape leaves, suggesting dyed wood. Halstead, G. Interior Wood Finishing in Medieval and Renaissance Europe http://www.medievalwoodworking.com/articles/finishing2.htm Accessed 12/09/05 ---. A Brief Description of Some Medieval French Woodworking: The Musée National du Moyen Age - Thermes de Cluny http://www.medievalwoodworking.com/articles/cluny.htm Accessed 12/09/05 –particularly notable for the inlay decorated game board featuring green-dyed wood. Kingsbury, J. (SCA: Miriam bas Levi). Pyrography. In Tournaments Illuminated, Winter, 1998. SCA, Inc: Milipatas, CA McNutt, Bill. (SCA: Master William McNaughton ) Will's Medieval Woodworking: Frequently Asked Questions http://tech.cls.utk.edu/wood/faq/ Accessed 12/10/05 Merrifield, Mary, ed. Original Treatises on the Arts of Painting. Dover. New York: 1999. The Metropolitan Museum, New York. Studiolo from the Ducal Palace Gubbio. http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/studiolo/STUDIOLO_HMPG.html Accessed 12/09/05. Probably the finest example this side of the Atlantic, with lots of great shots and details. Some details suggest wood burning as a darkening technique. Schreffler, M. (SCA: Mot Cather) Pyrography: A Renaissance Art. http://www.geocities.com/mot@swbell.net/pyro.html Accessed 12/10/05. Contains many references to period examples, including upon cassones of the Italian Renaissance. Questions, comments, suggestions, thoughts? I welcome correspondence at merouda (at) hotmail (dot) com. Use your back button, or {Elyse Boucher} {Arts and Sciences Top} {A&S Heraldry} {Poopie the Pirate} {Help Support This Site} (old link bar, some still active): {Elise Boucher} {Sept Pendray} {Merouda Pendray}
This document created 10 December 2005 |
