Marquetry Chessboard

Celtic Beasts
For some time now I have been wanting to do something with Celtic Knots. While doing my research on the Net I discovered Celtic Beasts, and fell in love with them. This piece was quite a challenge, but most rewarding once I saw the final product.

I made this chessboard design using marquetry. The veneer was adhered to a plywood base which I framed with poplar. The dark squares are Turtleback Poplar. The white ones are Maple Pomelle Quilt and the yellow borders are Movingue. I finished it with three coats of boiled linseed oil and after letting it cure for a month I applied six coats of oil-based polyurethane.

Each dark square is made up of four pieces and surrounded with a fine black line. Fortunately the Turtleback Poplar veneer I was using had definite dark and light sections. I could thus alternate these to increase the optical illusion.

To create the border I first scanned images of old Celtic beasts I found documented in a book by Courtney Davis. These beasts are from manuscripts and gospels from around the eighth and ninth century. I had to manipulate the images until they fitted the size of the squares I wanted for the border. Celtic designs are very intricate so I had to simplify the curls of the knots to make them better suited for marquetry. I did however keep to the over-under nature of Celtic knots.

Here you can see the detail a little closer. As I make my cuts with an X-Acto knife (blade) I am able to get the joints very close.

I won a First Place in the Non-furniture, Games Division at The Woodworking Show in Atlanta, Georgia in March 2000. This was the first time I entered my work in a competition. (I got a Second Place for my little box too.)

Fiddleback Board
This is another chessboard I am making on assignment. The dark squares are Fiddleback Sapele and the light squares are Flame Eye Silver Maple. I used a commercial feature strip and Indian Rosewood for the border.

As you can see here I used a solid core of hardwood, to give the pieces weight. These were then covered on all sides with veneer.

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