A lot of people think that intarsia is a 'niche' woodworking area. Well, think again. Intarsia is an extremely popular wood craft. It's a relatively inexpensive craft to get involved in, doesn't require a large shop space, and it offers considerable latitude for personal creative expression.

Garnet Hall, a frequent contributor to Canadian Woodworking Magazine, an accomplished intarsia artist, teacher and author (Art of Intarsia and Creative Intarsia Projects), has just released this new book.

"Artistic Intarsia Projects" presents 24 projects. A number of projects have under 24 pieces, making them easily suitable for the novice intarsia artist. The balance of projects have five to seven dozen pieces, with one of the projects topping out at 104 pieces.

The first 17 pages of the book provide a 'primer' on intarsia techniques. Garnet covers just about everything you need to know to get started - selecting wood, transferring the pattern to wood, basic cutting and fitting techniques, raising and lowering pieces, texturing, sanding, backings, finishing, and the all important safety and health considerations.

The overview is well written and supplemented with a lot of photos. My only complaint here, and it is a minor one, is that the photos are somewhat on the small side - about 1 3/4" square - which makes details hard to see. Thankfully the photos are bright and clear.

If you're new to the craft the information in the first 17 pages will enable you to get started on your first project.

The projects are nicely laid out. Each one has a materials list, step-by-step instructions on what to do (augmented by detail photos), an illustration showing which woods go where, an illustration showing the thickness of each piece, the pattern, and a photo of the completed project.

For anyone who plans on selling their intarsia projects Garnet has a short section at the back of the book on pricing your work.

A well written book with a lot of good advice, and some excellent projects.

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