Oysters
Things here are continuing with other stuff going on too.
Before Christmas I had dropped into the staffs Marquetry group to see if they had any ideas about Oysters…..Not the fishy type in shells but the Marquetry technique or effect that shares the same name. I found a definition that might clarify this a bit
‘Veneers cut across the grain of small branches of trees such as walnut, olive and laburnum, and laid decoratively. Popular circa 1700’
Basically these slices of branches can be assembled to form patterned sheets, which have an appearance similar to an oyster shell. To buy, these veneers are expensive and they often feature on antique furniture rather than being used for pictures. I like the idea of using the slices of twigs in some way and wanted to produce some of my own. I was introduced to a razor saw, a very dainty tool with many fine teeth for cutting and a thin blade, essential to attempting to cut anything to veneer thickness.
By lucky coincidence I had a couple of twigs with me and was able to produce some little oysters quite nicely. So this has given me some other things to think about. Without a lot of equipment creating sheets of veneer would be a fairly impossible task so this feels like a scaled down version, a way of working with a piece of wood from scratch.
Christmas brought this shiny looking razor saw too and a good opportunity for making use of the tree once it had done its job. I am still in the process of stretching its creative potential.
