A Christmas wreath I made for my wife. The light brown wood is mahogany, the dark wood is walnut and the berries are yellow heart wood. This is a Kathy Wise pattern.

I built one fish out of 3/4" woods and then sliced it into two pieces! The white wood is American Holly, the darkest wood is Walnut, the medium dark wood is Sapele, and the eye is Holly and ebony.

On the original spotty fish the tail and body were all one piece of paduk until I tried to get too aggressive with my large disk sander. It pulled the wood into the gap between the disk and the table and ripped the tail off! A little purple heart and voila! The orange wood is Paduk, the purple is Purple Heart, the brown is Walnut, and the eye is Yellow Heart and Walnut.

My second piece. The brown wood is Western Cedar and the light wood is Fir. This is a Judy Gale Roberts pattern from one of her books.

This guy was my first intarsia project. The pattern was from a magazine. I did this guy using common pine and fir because I didn't know how well it would turn out. The body is pine stained ebony, the mouth is pine and fir stained red, and the teeth are holly.
The pattern is by Larry Goodwin from the Jan '05 Creative Woodworks & Crafts

My first attempt at doing my own pattern (obviously an amateur!) If you can't tell what it is don't feel alone. It is supposed to be ballet slippers on a ballerina's feet. Its made from purple heart and oak. (Believe it or not, I don't think I'll quit my day job yet!)

This intarsia rose is a Judy Gale Roberts pattern from her small intarsia book. The rose is made out of poplar and stained red. The hips are of walnut and the leaves are birds eye maple.

This Sea Turtle was designed by Sea Turtles, Darin Lilies and was in the Mar '06 issue of Creative Woodworks & Crafts. I enlarged the pattern to 125% to make it easier to cut out (the old gray eyes ain't what they used to be!)

This is the correct size turtle. Both were mounted onto a piece of drift wood as Darin had done with his original. The woods are: Body - Lacewood, shell - walnut, bottom and eyeballs - oak, and eyes either ebony or yellow heart.

OK, so this isn't intarsia. But it is a deer-in-a-rose! Its from Scott Kochendorfer from Apr '05 Creative Woodworks & Crafts

Here's one for my daughter's 2006 Christmas gift.

This Golden Retreiver is from a pattern by Janette Square. It was fun to make and I recommend Janette's patterns to anyone. The body is mahogany, nose is ebony, teeth are holly, dark wood is walnut and the 'pinkish' wood is stained pine.

A creche!
With six major pieces, this has been my biggest project to date. The patterns are from Creative Woodworks & Crafts. If all goes well, I'll try to add other figures to the creche. Maybe one each Christmas?

Magi - Gold on the left and Frankincense on right.
The left magi is made from: yellowheart, redheart (Blood wood), ebony, and holly. The right magi is: canary wood, mahogany, redheart, maple (sleeve), holly, yellowheart, and ebony.

Left, myrrh maji - right, shepherd and lambs.

The left magi: sycamore (lower robe), lacewood (upper robe), walnut (sleeve), holly (cuff), mahogany (hand & face), readheart, and yellowheart.

Lambs - aspen and ebony. Shepherd: mahogany, zebrawood, walnut (headband), pine face and hand, and oak crook.

The manger.
Quilted maple, purpleheart, cedar (Joseph's sleeve, Mary's front, and blanket), ash (cradle), yellowheart (halo and star), maple (hands, faces, etc.), walnut (Joseph's hair), jabota (eaves), and birch plywood.

The camel.
Mahogany, purpleheart, redheart, yellowheart, zebrawood.

A Teddy Bear for Owen.
A Judy Gale Roberts pattern from her book "Easy To Make Intarsia". This little guy was fun to make - I can see more of these in my future! The bear is made from mahogany - body, red cedar - feet, inside ear & muzzle, poplar - white pieces, purpleheart - purple pieces(!), and walnut - eyes & nose. I encourage anyone to try Judy's patterns.

This Corgi is another one of Janette Square's (www.square-designs.com) wonderful designs. Its a complex pattern but well worth the effort.

 

(A big thank you to my colleague and friend Ted Cantrall for taking the photos)