OK, I’m a little impulsive but I work quickly so maybe I can pull this off. I’m showing my jewellery box at the Sooke Fine Art Show in a week and will be doing four hours of chevalet / marquetry demos there as well. When I have done this in the past I have always had inquiries about classes which I have always put off because a) I didn’t feel I was good enough or experienced enough to teach marquetry and b) because to teach this kind of marquetry to a class of more than one I would need more chevalets.

To point a) above, the jewellery box has changed my perception of my abilities and I now feel that I have something to give in terms of basic introductory marquetry as practised on the chevalet.

To point b) above ……. How hard can it be to build a few more chevalets?

Fast forward to last night when, cruising the “Used Cowichan Valley” listings I spotted an ad for some “sweet” full dimension, rough Douglas Fir in 2×6, 2×8, and 2×10 ……… for a buck (Canadian buck) / fbm. I figured that if I bought twice what I needed I would be able to get the pieces I needed if it wasn’t too bad.

I’ll let you be the judge. This is the load I picked up this morning. It is just over 300 fbm and cost me $300.
It is almost all edge grain and has large clear areas with only small tight knots elsewhere.

This is the first board off the top after a quick run through the planer. It is still
1 7/8"" thick.

After about an hour’s work, I had the pieces cut for four bases, four columns and four face plates. There was very little waste. This only used up two 2×8′s and two 2×6’s (10 footers)

When I quit for the day I had about two and a quarter hours in and had the column halves and base halves glued up as well as the face plates completely dadoed. ……. (Yes, I know. Some of you will be on my case for using pva glue but it’s cheap and I don’t need any of the special qualities of my preferred hide glues.)

My hope is to have these finished in time to conduct a class or two before I go back to Az for the winter. Actually I would like to have one on display at my demo next Saturday. Who knows maybe no one will even ask this year…..

Thanks for looking

Paul