REDBRIDGE NEWS & INFORMATION

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Winter/Spring Term

We are now back in our usual rooms from our recent holiday and raring to go with our Winter/Spring term, and except for the half term break on Wednesday 15th February, we will be available in our accustomed rooms until our next break which will be for the Easter holidays in April 2012. We will bring you more information on those holidays with our March updates.

In the meantime, if marquetry and art in wood appeals to you, why not come along, see how it's done and meet a very friendly group of enthusiastic marquetry people?

Just pop along on any Wednesday evening meeting, pop your head round the door and say hello, and you will be assured of a very warm and friendly welcome.
We look forward to seeing you.

Our Dovecote Gallery Marquetry Exhibition

We held a most successful marquetry exhibition at the Dovecote Gallery, Valentines Park while our rooms were renovated recently.

The exhibition saw us recruit a goodly number of new members to our group. The Redbridge Marquetry Group is growing at an exponential rate these days! It's wonderful to see so much interest in marquetry.

Click the link and see a few photos from the exhibition >> 

Scientific & Latin Names of Veneers and Wood

Our much learned David Walker has been burning gallons of midnight oil compiling a comprehensive table of the scientific and Latin names of virtually all the woods and veneers that currently exist.

The table runs to many hundreds - or probably thousands of scientific names.

So, if you need a reference, you'll find it here. The table is very large indeed - and will therefore be added to this web site in stages. These latest additions now take us from letters A to T.

Click the link and be amazed >

Parquetry Techniques Parts I & II

We are often asked "how would I go about making parquetry?".

We usually explain to the inquirers that parquetry is actually a form of geometric marquetry, in that it is made from mathematically correct manipulation of veneers into an attractive and decorative arrangement, and therefore it requires slightly different techniques from normal marquetry.

And so with the above in mind, and, to bring you one of the best explanations of those particular techniques required, we have adapted and brought up to date Les Reed's definitive thoughts and ideas of how parquetry is best learnt and ultimately produced.

Our January 2010 update now includes part 2 of this superb series, just choose from the link list if you have already read and learnt part 1.

Click the link on the right and learn how to begin making your own parquetry > 

"Parquetry pt2"

Newly Discovered Photo of Silver Jubilee Mural

A superb newly discovered photo of our Horrie Pedder inspecting the massive Silver Jubilee Mural in its Royal location has recently come to light.

Horrie was one of the Marquetry Artists who took part in the design and making of this wonderful mural, and therefore he was anxious about how it would look when it was installed in its new Royal home.

He needn't have worried though, it looked marvellous displayed on its very own wall. Click the link to see and read about it for yourself >>>

Early News & Events Articles

You will find that we have "cleaned up" this News & Events page so that the items contained on this page are reasonably current and not "old news". All of the earlier items, together with their links, are still available on a companion page to this one.
To access that page just click the link on the right:

Drawing a Simple Oval (Ellipse) using the String & Pins Method

Back in September last year, our Tom Brewer wrote us an article on producing ovals and ellipses by a variety of technical, and not so technical, drawing methods.

The 'string loop' method proved to be a popular way of working, and has been adopted by many marquetarians. However, Tom's rather technical description of how the technique is performed has caused some confusion in its execution and has caused several letters to come in to us over the last year asking us to explain the technique in an easier to understand style (which we are always happy to do).

But, now, we thought, it's about time we got Tom to put on a demonstration of the technique so that we can photograph each stage and place it on the web site as a mini tutorial. This we have done - and you can see it now by clicking the link on the right >> 

The Veneer Hammer

The veneer hammer is a tool rarely encountered these days. Actually, the word 'hammer' in its title is a bit of a misnomer and is an unfair accolade to its true use.

The veneer hammer is not used as a hammer at all, its true purpose is to "squeeze" the veneer to the baseboard when the services of a press are not available. It was most often used with "Scotch" glue or those "Glu-film" adhesives. With today's advanced adhesives the veneer hammer's use has rather declined.

However, in the interests of keeping you informed about all the tools available to the marquetarian, we present to you - the veneer hammer! Just click the link >>>

Dave's Celebrated Marquetry Press

Our very own resident technical wizard Dave Walker has once again put his mind to the thorny subject of flattening a marquetry picture to its baseboard prior to the final finishing stages.

The obvious answer to this problem is to make use of a press - but, what constitutes a good marquetry press? Well, Dave has the answer and he very kindly provides it here. Just click the link to read all about Dave's marquetry press >>>

Veneer Examples Over Half of a Century Old

A short while ago one of our RMG members happened to stumble across a veneer sample book from around the 1950's.

The book seems to have remained unopened for many years, and as a consequence of this, it gives us access to more than 80 examples of over 50 year old veneers that have not been exposed to the damage of sunlight.

The veneers have all been carefully scanned and the results are now available for you to examine on our web site.

To see all 84 examples, just click the link on the right >>> 

Chas's Money Boxes & Other Pieces

Chas Baker has kindly allowed us access to his money box and silhouette archives.

Chas has made dozens of these marquetry pieces over the years, with the money boxes being particularly cherished gifts for each of his grandchildren.

Click the link on the right for a shortcut to Chas's Money Box & Silhouettes archive page >>

Chas Baker's Musical Jewellery Boxes

As many of you already know, our Chas Baker is a wizard at making unusual gifts of a marquetry nature for his family and friends.

One of our Redbridge Group recently asked Chas to bring a sample of his famous "Musical Jewellery Boxes" in for them to study.

While Chas's attention was distracted for a few moments, our "tame photographer" craftily snapped a few shots of the musical box for our web site. We are pleased to bring these to you now. Just click the link on the right to see this superb musical box.

We hope to encourage Chas to write a piece about how he made them for a future update of this web site, but, for the mean time, please enjoy the photos >>

Early National Exhibition Galleries
New Additions for November

Our November update includes 1978's National Exhibition Gallery for you to visit (in a cyber-world fashion of course!)

We know that many of you really enjoy looking at the marquetry exhibits in the latest National Exhibition Gallery. But, what of those Galleries of yesteryear, what's happened to them?

Well, you'll be pleased to know that we have dug into the archives and unearthed "a lorry load" of National Exhibition photos from years gone by.

The photos from the early years are rather variable in photographic quality, but with a little help from "good old" Photoshop we have been able to make them very acceptable. Unfortunately these early photos were all taken in black & white, but to make them easier on the eye, we have given them a little sepia tint to warm them up.

Click the link on the right to visit the 1970 & 1978 Winner's Gallery >>

"1970 National Exhibition
Winner's Gallery"

Latest Tutorials & Demonstrations

Our Redbridge group members have been hard at it over the holiday break and have produced two new demonstrations and tutorials for you.

Dave Walker has once again produced another definitive demonstration, this one being on the Taylor method for producing convincing foliage on trees and bushes. But would you believe, this technique actually involves hitting your beautifully cut and mounted marquetry picture with a six inch nail and a hammer!!

But don't despair because there is a method behind this obvious madness - click the link on the right to find out just what it is all about >>

Our professional draftsman Tom Brewer has been persuaded to write us an article on the methods required to draw ovals and egg shapes with just bits of string, a set of compasses and a ruler!

Tom, being the gentleman that he is, has kindly written the guide notes and done the drawings for us, so all we've had to do is assemble the lot into a web site page - and then present it to you. Click the link to read Tom's article >>

"How to draw ovals

Burr (Burl) Veneer Descriptions & Library

The latest page to our veneers library and gallery describes and displays those most favoured of marquetarian's veneers; the burrs!

Everyone seems to like burrs and we thought it was about time for us to bring you a full page devoted entirely to those outgrowths and warts that the trees themselves (if they have any awareness) would probably think of as ugly, but we contrarily, as the users of those "tree warts" find immensely picturesque and beautiful!

Anyway, after our little flight of fancy, let's take a look at those burrs / burls by clicking the link on the right:

The July 1981 Redbridge Group's Exhibition

One of our Redbridge Marquetry Group's members has recently uncovered a cache of high quality black and white photos which were taken at the very successful Fulwell Cross exhibition the group held in July 1981.
This exhibition was the very first to be held by the group since its formation in 1979 - and we are very pleased to say that many of those original members from that 1979 formation are still turning up regularly for our weekly group meetings.
The infamous Charlie Good (a marquetarian held in the very highest esteem) attended the exhibition and displayed a small selection of his magnificent marquetry pictures.
We have started off this display with ten selected pictures for you to enjoy, we will add more pictures with future updates. We hope you will enjoy this first small selection as much as we do.
Click the link on the right to "visit the 1981 Exhibition":  

Using a Scraper Demonstration

We promised you that we will be bringing you a tutorial / demonstration on the uses of a scraper with this update.
Well, to prove that we are as good as our word - here it is!
You will find this is a very informative tutorial that really gets into the veritable depths of it's subject.
Scrapers are truly invaluable for removing larger amounts of waste material from your marquetry work than you could ever achieve with cork blocks and abrasive papers in just a fraction of the time.
Click the link on the right for this tutorial: 

Tunbridge Ware Tutorial

In July 2006 we re-published a 50 year old article taken from the Marquetarian magazine covering the subject of Tunbridge Ware.
Somewhat to our surprise the article proved to be very popular - so therefore in response to this unexpected interest we have coerced our Chief Instructor Alf Murtell into presenting a practical demonstration of the methods needed to make a piece of Tunbridge Ware.
So it is that, with the help of our Stan Wiskin and his trusty band saw, we now bring you Alf Murtell's Tunbridge Ware tutorial. We feel sure you will thoroughly enjoy it.
Just click the link on the right for the tutorial:

1957 Tunbridge Ware Article

Recently there has been rather a lot of interest shown in Tunbridge Ware by marquetry minded people.
This is a form of "woodwork" that can be used to reproduce a repetitive pattern of a complex nature without going to the extremes of re-cutting the design time and time again.
Tunbridge Ware is an attractive form of wood decoration and is well worth studying.
Therefore, to help you gain an understanding of how this art is performed, we have dug into the archives and unearthed an early article from The Marquetarian published nearly 50 years ago - and revamped it for today's web site!
Thanks must obviously go to Mr A. Vigus for writing the original article -  and to The Marquetarian for making it available to us for publishing today.
Just click the link on the right for this item: 

Marquetry in the 1950's

A superb cache of marquetry photos from the 1950's has been unearthed by one of our group members.
There are quite a few National Exhibition pictures in the collection  - and we have taken the opportunity to republish a few here. The original photos are somewhat 'time worn', but we have used a little computer magic and cleaned them up for you.
Just click the link on the right for this item: 
While there, why not click the link at the bottom of that page to read a really good article on finishing marquetry pictures in the 50's - it's very educational, well worth reading!!   

Judging Marquetry in the 1950's

We thought that a little delve into intricacies of judging a "National" in the early days of the Society would prove interesting. The priorities have changed a fair amount over the years and make fascinating reading - so, just click this link to read a genuine report from the '50's
Just click the link on the right for this item: 

Flattening Buckled Veneers Tutorial

Alf Murtell, (our very own Mr Dynamite!)  has produced yet another tutorial for us. This tutorial is one that 'umpteen visitors have requested - it is the one that demonstrates how to flatten buckled and warped veneers. There are a few "ingredients" required for the process - they are all listed at the bottom of the tutorial - and, you will find that they are all easily available.
Just click the link on the right for this item: 

Bleaching Veneers Tutorial

Our Alf Murtell did our Redbridge Group a superb demonstration of bleaching techniques last week and we have recorded the demonstration as a tutorial.
We have transcribed the full dialogue for you and included it as the text for that same tutorial - we hope you like this approach because we think it adds a more "being there" feel to the demonstration, you could almost feel that you are there at the demonstration with us!.
Just click the link on the right for this item: 

Photos Enquiry

Can You Help Us? We are currently attempting to locate photos of any of the marquetry pictures that were entered in the very first National Exhibition of 1953. If you think that you may have a photo of any of the exhibits would you mind helping us out with this quest and contacting our editorial team with any details you may have of those very first exhibits.

You can e-mail us from this following link:
Just click the link on the right for this item: 

Beginning of the Marquetry Society 

A Superb collection of hand written pages describing the beginnings of the Marquetry Society have been discovered by one of our Redbridge Marquetry Group members.
These papers detail how in 1952 an enquiring letter to a hobby magazine started the whole thing off.
The papers describe the very first National Exhibition and provide a list of all the winning pictures. There is a link to this page available the "Our History" page.
Or, if you prefer a short cut,
Just click the link on the right for this item: 
(By the way, we have found some photos of that first National Exhibition winner's work and we have added them as a link on the above page. Do have a look, we think you'll enjoy them.)

Site Map Information

Don't forget to make use of our "site map" to take you to any page, sub page, article or illustration on our site by just clicking on its name.
Just click the link on the right for this item:     

Visiting us at Redbridge

Why not come along and visit us at our rooms in the leafy Borough of Redbridge.
You will receive a very warm welcome from all the members and you will be able to see the art and craft of marquetry being performed by award winning marquetarians.
You can find a map of our location on our "Contact Us" page.
Do come along and enjoy some of that legendary Redbridge hospitality, you will be most welcome. 

Sending Enquiries

We are pleased to say that our editorial team is keeping very busy with replying to, and answering, your e-mail questions and enquiries. Thanks for sending them in, we appreciate your interest in our web site. We are always available to answer your marquetry questions. All you need to do is just click on the "Contact Us" button at the bottom of this page and use the pre-addressed link to send us an e-mail, it's that easy! 

E-Mailing Us

If you are unable to get to one of our meetings but would like to "have a chat" with us, please feel free to e-mail our editorial team (or you can use our feedback form if you prefer) and our team will send you a friendly (and hopefully useful!) reply if you would like one. In the meantime, keep visiting this web site for all the latest news from the Redbridge Marquetry Group. 

IMPORTANT INFORMATION