This stone inlay class was held at the Marc Adams School of Woodwork, where I have been teaching once or sometimes even twice a year, for the last 17 years. This school is well organized and well equipped to handle a variety of programs, where I have seen strong interest in students learning the skills I have been practicing since my various European apprenticeships, almost 40 years ago (yikes !)

There are always new things to learn from such classes, for students and teachers alike.  Some of the challenges that emerged from these classes usually give many opportunities to solve new types of problems associated with this tedious and finicky work. One can push wood around a lot, where stone you cannot. We used marble tiles, stones found in the yard, and semi-precious stones that some people brought to class, to make pictures of stone, with a technique called ‘Pietra Dure’. This trade originated in Italy, where I studied wood and stone marquetry and inlay.
I am constantly amazed at peoples creativity, and am happy to give the advise and guidance needed to make long lasting works of art, sometimes rivaling work found in many galleries and museums today. Working with stone has a particular allure and fascination within the world of hand-trades. The colors do not fade with time, takes time and skill to master, but with the use of some modern cutting techniques that I developed over the years, allows one to create several pieces of work that can be inserted into furniture projects or left as stand-alone art pieces, during this five day class. These are some pics of the projects that were done during this week, over the fall of 2015.