In our kitchen we used a basket to carry syrup, chocolate sprinkles and other sweets from the kitchen drawer to the lunch table. This basket was in urgent need of replacement. I had a piece of maple wood lying around for a while, with the idea in the back of my mind to make a tray from it. And to decorate the bottom with marquetry. I ordered a Craft Package Veneer from the Arnhemse Fijnhouthandel and was very surprised to see so many different types and colours of wood.
A visit to the ‘Escher in the Palace’ exhibition in The Hague inspired me to use a so-called tessellation. I found a nice instruction for laser engraving veneer on the internet, using this drawing of lizards by Escher. The instructions came with a detailed digital file. Editing this file was a good exercise to get familiar with the laser etching software (Lightburn) and my laser etching equipment. With the result I put my laser engraver to work
Here is the result after gluing all the pieces togerther. I used four different sheets of veneer to create some contrast between the lizards.
My original idea was to create four serving trays with this design. Unfortunately I had to abandon this idea. The lines between the lizards are so thin and fragile that many broke during handling. In the end there was only one useable version left.