Intarsia is one of the types of inlay. It involves decorating a wooden surface with the same wooden parts, but with a different texture and tone. It is also called wood mosaic. Carefully fitted inlays create a surprisingly filigree pattern on the surface of the products. Moreover, this depends only on the skill of the specialist. Inlaid masterpieces made not only from valuable types of wood, but also from ordinary ones can look elegant and sophisticated.

From time immemorial

The homeland of intarsia is Ancient Egypt. The reason for the emergence of this type of art among the Egyptians was a shortage of wood. Imported from other countries, this valuable material became worth its weight in gold. Hence the high cost of items decorated with intarsia. Using this technique, sarcophagi made of cedar and cypress were decorated. Boxwood, dogwood and maple plates were used as inlays.

Boxwood, also known as boxwood, is an evergreen tree with very heavy and hard wood. Grows in Asia Minor and Central Asia, Crimea, and the Caucasus.

At first, the technique was dominated by floral patterns. Then they began to become more complex with the introduction of human and animal figures. Subsequently, in inlaid paintings one could see the perspective of streets and cities, scenes from everyday life. As the artist's skill grew, the ornaments became more complex.

Intarsia flourished during the Renaissance. The most complex ornamental forms decorated the wooden surfaces of furniture and walls of that time. The craftsmen who created such masterpieces worked for months, adjusting the thinnest precious plates.

In the mid-15th century, 80 workshops in Florence were working on works of inlay art.

How to do it

The intarsia technique is quite complex. It involves the perfect fit of wooden plates that create an ornament along the edge. The front side of the parts is polished to a perfect condition, but the bottom should remain rough. This allows for maximum grip on the surface. The fitted parts are glued together and placed into a recess on the wooden surface that needs to be decorated. Its thickness should correspond to the thickness of the nested set.

Inlays of this type can be used to decorate houses, utensils, and household items. Using the intarsia technique, entire paintings are created.

Product with intrasia - as a gift

Products decorated using the intarsia technique are a wonderful gift. They can make any interior elegant and sophisticated. When ordering such a product, you can say with confidence that the gift will be unique.

What's special about it?

The peculiarity of intarsia is that the background of a wooden mosaic is wood with all its complexity and versatility of texture. Just as there are no two identical specimens of flora in nature, there are no similar tree cuts. Each has a unique design. The background is not inferior to the decoration in beauty and sophistication. This allows you to create truly unique paintings.

Figured image, patterns from wood plates, different in texture, color, embedded in a wooden surface. Intarsia is done in the same way as inlay.

Features of intarsia: with intarsia, individual wooden plates that make up the pattern are tightly fitted along the edges, glued and inserted into the array of the object being decorated, where recesses equal to the thickness of the set are pre-selected with a cutting tool. The front side of the records is carefully smoothed and polished. The bottom surface is left rough for better adhesion to the base. With intarsia, solid wood of the product acts as a background for mosaic decorations.

Intarsia reached its peak during the Renaissance in Italy. Only in Florence in the middle of the 15th century. There were more than 80 workshops. Mosaics were used mainly to decorate church furniture and utensils. Decoration methods included geometric and floral patterns. Dark wood species were used for the background, light wood for the design, and vice versa. Intarsia originated in ancient Egypt, where wood with a beautiful texture and bright color began to be used for inlaying wooden products along with ivory, metal, mother-of-pearl, and stones.

The ancient Greeks, in order to change the color of wood, soaked it in oil, alum, and boiled it in paint. Sarcophagi were also made from cypress and cedar. They were decorated with ornaments of plant forms, using boxwood, maple, ironwood, and dogwood.

With the development of skill, ornamental compositions became more complex. Polygonal perspective images of city streets, scenes from everyday life, and historical events began to appear. In the production of plot sets, engraving, etching, and wood burning began to be used. From Italy, intarsia penetrated into France, Germany and other countries of Central Europe.

In a broad sense, intarsia refers to a type of decorative and applied art, which is a technique of inlaying wood onto wood. In a narrower sense, intarsia is three-dimensional mosaic paintings created by arranging different types of wood, playing with its shades and texture patterns. Let’s talk about the basic principles of this technique and its subtleties using the example of the “Goldfish” project.

What is the essence of technology?

Creating a mosaic picture involves three basic stages:

1. Sawing mosaic segments according to a pre-prepared pattern. Depending on the complexity of the project, the number of elements and their sizes, both a machine and a manual jigsaw can be used for these purposes.
2. The second stage is grinding the sawn segments and smoothing their angularity. This is done in order to give the wood mosaic volume and depth.
3. The final stage is gluing all the pieces into a single picture and fixing it on a plywood or cardboard backing made in the shape of the final product.

What nuances are important to pay attention to?

In general terms, intarsia looks quite simple. But in order for your work made using this technique to turn into a real work of art created with your own hands, it is important to know and be guided by certain subtleties:

• always follow the grain direction indicated in the template;
• use a play of contrasts in wood tones and texture patterns. If you use one color/type of wood, the work will turn out monotonous and boring. Intarsia should include a variety of contrasting wood shades, ranging from white to dark;
• achieve the depth of the mosaic not only by grinding down the angularity of each element, but also by playing with the relief. This is done by lowering or raising some segments in areas where you need to visually work out the volume;
• Do not use blanks that are too thick, especially for projects with many details - this will negatively affect the quality of the cuts and deteriorate the appearance of the mosaic.

How to read intarsia diagrams correctly?

The intarsia diagrams contain a lot of useful information, and if you know how to read it, you will significantly simplify the work process and improve its quality.

1. Each mosaic segment is numbered, which greatly simplifies assembly.
2. Arrows indicate the direction of wood fibers for each segment.
3. The color of the contours indicates the sequence of cutting lines.
4. The -1/4" marking indicates that the thickness of the indicated segment should be reduced by a quarter inch (6 mm).
5. The color of the wood is indicated by letter indexing. For example, W (white shade) means that you need to use a segment of light tones, B (black shade) - a dark tone, Y (yellow) - the use of an element with a yellow tint.

How to transfer a template to wood?

There are several options for transferring the intarsia pattern onto a wooden blank:

• using carbon paper;
• using aerosol glue;
• gluing the template onto double-sided tape;
• hand tracing each element cut out of paper.

By testing different approaches, it is easy to choose the optimal template transfer option for yourself.

What files should I use for intarsia?

For cutting small parts, projects with sharp turns, and when working with soft or thin wood, #3 jigsaw blades are optimal. They will ensure a neat cut, with a minimum volume of sawn material, due to which small mosaic elements will fit tightly to each other.

For cutting hard wood and working with thick workpieces, use #5 or #7 saws. They are also suitable for sawing outer edges that will not be installed next to other elements.

If you want to avoid chipping on the back side, use files with a reverse (reverse) tooth. Blades with so-called “missing tooth”, remove chips more effectively, preventing their accumulation. Over time, the master learns to feel the characteristics of each file and finds his optimal standard.

What types of intarsia are there?

Intarsia is a free technique in which there are no strict rules or canons. Wooden block mosaics can be varied with elements made of glass, stone or plastic. Feel free to liberally use stains, varnishes, oils and dyes to finish and paint your project.

Instead of ordinary mosaic elements, you can use complex parts in which one type of wood is carefully cut into another. Such textural breaks give the project additional originality and attractiveness. The texture of each mosaic element can be worked out separately using burning, carving techniques or using a drill.

How to make a pattern for intarsia?

Free drawings and diagrams for intarsia are presented in sufficient quantities on the Internet, especially in its English-language segment. But if you wish, you can create a mosaic template yourself using a picture or photograph. You can use a special program that converts a photo into a diagram. A classic example of such a service is online.rapidresizer.com.

With minimal skills in working with graphic editors, for example, Adobe Photoshop, you can independently convert a photograph into a contour drawing, which will become a template for cutting.