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Koi Plate

Marquetry using laser cut


Introduction

A few years ago, I ask for a simple plate to decorate. I never did it.

This christmass, I decided to do some marquetry, and to put a Koi fish in.

Setup

I spent some time searching for the “best” koi drawing image.

Next, for the colors, I decided to separate:

  • white skin
  • red skin
  • fins
  • outside

I wanted also to make a nice border

(from tropical woods)

I designed everything on Lightburn.

I cutted all small pieces and start the assembly.

While for cutting 5mm plywood, my sculpfun S10 needs to be at 4mm/sec, here for very thin marquetry wood, 25mm/sec is enough and depends on the wood color.

I shutted down the air pump, as the small pieces would fly away…

Assembly

First, I needed to scratch the plate for the glue to stick to it. It does not need to be very clean. Wood would cover it anyway.

Fish Place-Holder

I used the largest marquetry sheet to separate the border from the insider.

Putting the Border

I started with the border. I putted glue progressively to avoid drying (using a Q-tip, this is a very cheap and precise brush).

This was a 1h30 puzzle game.

Filling the Fish

After one drying night, I started the fish.

There was two errors on this project:

  • For the fish, wood direction was different. This is not recommanded for sanding (for the border, it was OK)
  • I did not use marquetry layer with the same thickness. This was even more difficult to sand.

Finishing

After sanding with a thin grain, I applied some wood varnish on it


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