CHANGES TO OUR HOME PAGE

Those who study our "Home Page" may have noticed one or two subtle changes with this month's update. Under our "Marquetry News" graphic we have now added a small list of the most important selected updates that are appearing for each month, together with a clickable link to the right of each update. We hope you find them helpful in locating the latest in marquetry info.

All the other links and information pages stay the same as you've always been used to; we have added those changes to highlight the most important of the updates for you. We hope you find them helpful.

MARQUETRY IN COSTA RICA

There is some wonderfully delicate and, shall we say, "organic" style of marquetry work coming out of Costa Rica these days.

This is principally originating from the artistically manipulated craft knife and saw blade of Francisco Guillen, who is already making quite a name for himself in the central Americas.

Francisco's work endeavors to create a harmony with the very materials of his art; that being the wood itself. The pictures selected for this World of Marquetry page illustrate Francisco's sentiments perfectly. Click the link on the right for a shortcut to see for yourself. We think you will enjoy the experience >>

OTHER ENTRIES GALLERY 2009

March 2010 brings us 'Room 7' of our 2009 "Other Entries" gallery where exhibits, that unfortunately missed out on achieving an award at this year's National Exhibition, nonetheless still attain the chance of displaying their artistry and craftsmanship in their own special gallery.

This "Other Entries Gallery" follows on from the same highly successful gallery of the same name that we introduced a couple of years ago.

The 2009 exhibits will replace the 2008 exhibits on a month by month basis until all the rooms of the gallery have been changed. This method ensures that each exhibit gets to be displayed for a full year.

The other room (for March it is room 8) will be updated to the 2009 entries on a pro rata basis as each update goes by. Therefore the next update will see Room 8 being changed to 2009 entries, and so on until all the entries have been displayed. We hope you enjoy the exhibits.

Click the links to visit 'Rooms 1 to 7 (for the 2009 Other Entries) on to room 8 (the 2008 Other Entries)' of the Other Entries Gallery >>>

THE MARQUETARIAN CARTOONS

From the early 1960's up to the present date, the Marquetarian has always included a cartoon or two in its publication "The Marquetarian".

These cartoons are always marquetry based (somewhat loosely at times!) and always provide a chuckle for the readers.

It is now nearly fifty years since they first made an appearance in the Marquetarian - so, as a rather 'loose' celebration of that fact, we are bringing you an occasional series of Marquetarian cartoons.

Click the link and start chuckling >>>

Current
&
Ongoing

NATIONAL EXHIBITION'S from 1976

Our March 2010 update brings you another selection from National Exhibitions gone by.

This latest selection comes from the 1986 National Marquetry Exhibition. Some of the work will be familiar to many of you - and much of it will be distant memories, or even "new" in relative terms. Anyway, we hope you will enjoy this month's selections and wonder again at the superb work of yesteryear.

Unfortunately, with the massive slide collection that these photos derive from, we are afraid to say that no reference notes were included as to the work's titles or names of the Marquetarians who made the pieces.

Thanks are due to those kind people who sent in the correct information about the titles and makers of many of those 'temporarily titled' pictures.

If anyone recognises a work, especially if it is their own, could they contact us and supply us with those details so that we can attribute each work appropriately. Just a quick e-mail would be most helpful.

The March 2010 addition is labelled "1986-G" >>

Includes
all information
on these
subjects
since
September
2007

"WE'VE HAD THIS PICTURE FOR YEARS, CAN YOU TELL US ANYTHING ABOUT IT?"

(Plus further "BUCHSCHMID & GRETAUX INFORMATION")

This question is often put to our editorial team - and I'm pleased to say that most of the time we are able to come up with an appropriate answer to the query.

Even though we have extensive archives and abundant knowledge on all matters marquetry, sometimes we can get "caught out" when trying to identify the maker of an early and very individual piece.

For this reason we introduced our "Can You Help?" page in 2007. This section of the web site has proved popular with our visitors, so for that reason we have expanded the facility.

Thanks to your collective input, we have quite a considerable amount of BUCHSCHMID & GRETAUX information available on pages 2 to 25 of "Can You Help?" that will help to answer many of your questions on this mysterious company. Do note though, that the information we display on our pages are "as supplied" to us and do not constitute the Marquetry Society's own opinions on the subject. Such observations as we make are purely that, just observations and not guaranteed opinions from which to formulate a judgement by. If you are able to find better informed information on the B & G subject, please refer to that in preference where any confirmed accuracy is required.

Nonetheless, it's another "well done" to everyone of you who are contributing to this now, rather unique resource. It is your input which is helping to make this section of the web site so very popular and useful to collectors of these beautiful Buchschmid & Gretaux pieces.

MEMBERSHIP OFFER NOW CARRIED ON INTO ITS 5th YEAR!

A Continuing Offer for 2010: Due to the success of our "2 for 1" new membership only offer introduced in 2006, we have decided to extend this offer through 2009. To take advantage of this offer become a NEW MEMBER of the Marquetry Society in 2010 and get your membership subscription for 2011 totally free!!

Yes, that's right, on becoming a new member of the Marquetry Society you will be entitled to receive the second year of your membership at a 100% discount for the whole of that second year!

It is a marvellous offer and is one we are sure that you will not want to miss.
To take advantage of this exceptional offer please make use of the "special" subscription form you will find on this web site.
For a short cut to the form click the link in the box on the right:

"subscription form"

ST. ALBANS GROUP "MINI" WEB SITE

February 2010 adds a new feature to this web site, it is the introduction of a "site within a site" as an independent entity with its own editorial control.

Each group that chooses to host their own mini site has full control over their content and layout, their only restriction being that we will block any religious or controversial material. Other than that, whatever they have to say is (or are) their own views, opinions and content as they see fit to wish to impart.

To kick off this wonderful new feature, please welcome the St. Albans group to their own web site. Just click the link on the right and - enjoy your visit >>>

February
2010

MEMORY LANE - MORE NEW ADDITIONS

February sees the discovery of a rare glass paperweight designed and produced by the Marquetry Society nearly four decades ago.

This glass paperweight was not only a highly decorative and useful item to have on one's writing desk, it was also useful as a trinket or paper clip receptacle into the bargain.

Click the link on the right to see a most fine example of this very desirable (but unfortunately no longer available) glass paperweight in page 6 of our popular Memory Lane series >>>

NATIONAL EXHIBITION AWARD WINNERS FROM 1953

Long serving member of the Marquetry Society Peter Metcalfe has spent months compiling a superb spreadsheet containing all our National Marquetry Exhibition award winners - and the awards - since the beginning of the Marquetry Society in the early nineteen fifties.

This is a large four page document and contains a lot of information, so be prepared for a good read.

Don't forget to return here once you've finished consulting this excellent document. Just use the yellow links contained in the PDF pages, or alternatively use your "Back" or "Return" browser button to return here.

2009 NATIONAL EXHIBITION SLIDE SHOW

At a recent Executive Committee meeting it was suggested that a slide show of the award winning entries from our National Exhibition would make a good addition to this web site.

"Right ho", said our editorial team, and a few weeks later an 'Award Winners' slide show has been added to our web site! Well done our editorial team.

Click the link on our Home Page, or the short cut link on the right and enjoy a slide show of our 2009 National Exhibition award winning entries >>>

CUTTER INTERVIEW NUMBER 6

The reintroduction, after a two year absence, of the well respected Cutter Interview series sees our intrepid interviewer chatting to the Marquetry Society's longest serving member Tom Brewer.

Tom has been a member of the Marquetry Society since its early days and has a vast store of memories of those founding members and the society's' progress ever since.

Click the link to read Tom's wonderfully interesting interview >>

GLUE TUTORIAL

Now, to most of you the subject of glue may not seem very interesting, but, this tutorial is definitely something to be recommended.

Due to a nosey bit of "ear wigging" by your web master at an Executive Committee Meeting last year, an absorbing conversation between two marquetry luminaries on the subject of glue became compulsive listening.

The conversation was truly educational, so, not wishing to miss the opportunity, your web master admitted his 'crime' and asked one of the 'overheard' if they would repeat that conversation for the web site. Being the true gentleman that he is, he graciously agreed and made the whole conversation available to us.

Click the link on the right for a really interesting read >>>

MARQUETARIAN ISSUE NUMBER 3

As the 'Marquetarian from the Start' series has now reached issue four in the current run of today's Marquetarian, we are pleased to bring you the entire contents of issue three with our April update.

This issue was first published in August 1953 - more than half a century ago!

It is amazing how much information is still relevant today. Just click the link on the right and enjoy a good 1953 read! >>>

JUDES FERRY INFORMATION

Page 2 of our Memory Lane section depicts the London Group celebrating their 25th anniversary in 1976 at a wonderful pub/restaurant known as Judes Ferry.

Unfortunately no one could remember the location of this delightful hostelry (perhaps they celebrated, shall we say, appropriately!) and all they could say was that it was somewhere in Suffolk!

Luckily for us, Mark has kindly written in with all of that information we had been missing. So, just click the link for Judes Ferry >>>

LEN PAGE MARQUETRY PICTURE

Although Len was one of those original six people that started the Marquetry Society way back in 1952, examples of Len's work have rarely been seen.

A colour slide of Len's 1979 National Exhibition entry has recently been unearthed by our historian and a digital copy of the picture has been passed to your editorial team. We are now more than happy to be able to bring you this rare picture for your enjoyment.

Just click the link to go directly to the picture on Len's own "Page" >>>
(Apologies for that terrible quip on Len's name - not really the most witty of puns was it?)

LEEDS GROUP MARQUETRY TUTORIALS

Our good friends at the Leeds Marquetry Group have recently introduced a new series of marquetry tutorials to their web site in an 'on line' slide show format.

These tutorials are wonderfully easy to follow and very instructive.

Steve (the Leeds Group web master) tells us that they already have several more tutorials in the pipe line for adding to the 'tutorial's library' later on this year. For an initial sampler, check out the Windows Method tutorial by clicking the link on the right, we know you will enjoy it. >>>

Note: Don't forget to return back here once you've finished visiting the Leeds Group web site!

CLIFF PENNY MARQUETRY GALLERY

We are so pleased to be able to tell you that a wonderful 'mini' gallery of Cliff Penny's marquetry work from the 1950's has been discovered.

There are eight sepia photos of Cliff's groundbreaking marquetry work on display in this gallery. As most of you probably know by now, Cliff Penny was (along with Len Page as mentioned above) one of the original six people who got together in 1952 to form the fledgling Marquetry Society.

Legend has it that Cliff ' invented' the, now universal, window method for producing marquetry. The high quality marquetry work we are so used to today, had its origins in those long gone days of the 'fifties'.

Do yourself a good favour and click the link for the Cliff Penny Gallery >>>

SOME NEW "FAVOURITES"

We have had some wonderful 'previously unseen' marquetry works sent into us since the beginning of this year.

We have taken this opportunity to add two of the ones that have "really grabbed our attention" to the Favourites Gallery for you to share and enjoy with us.

The uppermost of the two pictures was actually made over 30 years ago, but the construction and usage of the veneers is well up to present day standards. The marquetarian involved was, indeed, well ahead of his time.

The lower picture is one of today's works. It is made by an established artist who is using veneers to "paint" their pictures in place of the customary oils, acrylics, etc, etc. It is wonderful to see, and should act as a shining beacon to all marquetarians that conventional art is now coming to see marquetry as being a true art form in its own right.

Just click the link to enjoy these superb works >>>

MARQUETRY IN TURKEY

Turkey produces some really surprisingly large marquetry decorated vases and urns that truly have to be seen to be believed!

Their applied marquetry decoration follows traditional themes relating back over many centuries of Turkish culture and historical traditions. The wonderfully exotic essence of this beautiful country simply exudes from every square centimeter of the marquetry. These designs are superbly geometric in the most pleasingly delicate and intricate of 'marquetarial' fashions.

But, don't simply take our word for this, check it out yourself by visiting the Turkey page in our "World of" series. Click the link on the right for a shortcut >>>

MARQUETRY IN MOROCCO

There is a very high level of superb marquetry work coming from the amazingly talented Marquetarians living in Morocco.

The ancient buildings and the traditions of life that have hardly changed in hundreds of years seem to have added a wonderful aura that infuses the marquetry work with a sense of timelessness that is truly beautiful to behold.

But, don't take our word for this, check it out for yourself by visiting the Morocco page in our "World of" series. Click the link on the right for a shortcut >>>

ST. ALBANS INTER-GROUP COMPETITION

A few weeks ago the St. Albans, Harrow and Chelmsford Groups held an inter-group competition at the St. Albans group's own airy and spacious rooms in Chiswell Green.

The competition was a huge success and raised a most significant amount of monetary funds for, much missed, Frank Taylor's favourite charity.

The competition was based around the decoration each competitor applied to a standard square shaped wooden tissue box that had been supplied to each competitor. The resulting ingenious designs are something to be marvelled at, such amazing invention!

Click the link to check it all out >>>

A SPROUGHTON GROUP CHRISTMAS

The Sproughton Marquetry Group has recently been very busy decorating their lovely old Church with a special marquetry themed beautiful Christmas Tree.

They have made a positive host of colourful marquetry Santas that truly bring a wonderful bit of Christmas cheer to the tree's decorations. They are certainly a talented bunch are that lot in Sproughton!

Click the link to enjoy Sproughton's wonderful Christmas display >>>

THE 'ZANI' GREMLIN LES PAUL GUITAR

This is something different to our more usual fare. Zani (Suzanne Marquess) was commissioned to produce a 'one off' headstock cover design in marquetry for a custom made 'Gremlin' Les Paul guitar.

The headstock 'bell shaped' cover design of the more standard Les Paul guitar is replaced here by a round cornered natural wood rectangle depicting a musical motif rendered in most carefully cut marquetry.

If you are a guitarist, or just interested in guitars, you will enjoy this one >>>

REVIEWS

Our November update adds another new section to our web site.

As and when new marquetry related products appear on the market, we will be assessing selected items and bringing you reviews of them.

We start this new section with a review of famed marquetarian Silas Kopf's new book entitled "A Marquetry Odyssey".

Just click the link for the review >>>

Current
&
Ongoing

"DVD offer"

E-MAIL CONTACT DETAILS

If you have any questions you would like to ask us, or queries about anything contained in this web site, please feel free to e-mail us by using the pre addressed form that will appear when you click the link on the right. Thank you.

To contact the Marquetry Society Web Site please click the e-mail link on the right if you are using the standard Microsoft Outlook Express:

If however you are using a different E-mail system then just copy and paste the following address in to your "send to" box:

mqstymail@redbridgemarquetrygroup.org

or, if that is not possible, then just type it in as seen above, thanks.