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| Woodworker's Journal apprentice LiLi Jackson used a fretsaw and her breath to create pieces of marquetry (detail below) during her visit to the Anderson Ranch Arts Center. |
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| Susan Working is the director of the center. |
Anderson Ranch Arts Center (
www.andersonranch.org) has a "great atmosphere, to be with all these inspired and inspiring people," says LiLi Jackson. The
Woodworker's Journal apprentice got inspired about marquetry in her class at the Colorado center. She spent a week learning from master Craig Vandall Stevens, in a class that met in the campus "Barn."
For the woodworking course, LiLi's class used a larger shop room in the barn, while a turning class taught by Betty Scarpino met in the smaller area with the lathes. Wood program director Susan Working came by occasionally. That particular week, no one was in the machine room much, LiLi said - except for when her class needed to resaw their veneers. Craig had asked the students to think of a design before coming, and this was what they used to create their marquetry pieces.
First, you drill a hole with an "itsy-bitsy tiny drill bit," LiLi said, then you thread a fretsaw through two pieces of veneer taped together - one piece under the other. After threading the blade through, you close the fret saw and cut clockwise at an angle. When finished cutting out a piece, you put the veneer you want to keep into the design and glue it. "Once it's glued and bonded, it's as strong as the rest of the veneer," she said.
"I think marquetry on its own is amazing," LiLi said, but it's also one of "so many different aspects of woodworking and things you can do to augment woodworking." Craig incorporates marquetry into much of his work, and was one of the instructors who presented their work in an evening slide lecture during the week of LiLi's stay.
What everyone at Anderson Ranch - the instructors, the men and women of varying ages and backgrounds in her class, and students from other departments - had in common was "they liked creating," LiLi said. "That's what Anderson's all about: finding yourself and discovering your own creativity."
There was another reason she found the facilities at Anderson Ranch inspirational, too: "After a long day of woodworking, there's nothing better than to sit in a hot tub and look at the stars," she said.