Marquetry

I've identified a few areas of parasitic design and parasites in design. One of these concepts is a using a material as the parasite. This could be realised by boring or wasting material in the way in which wood louse burrows through wood leaving small tunnels and holes. It could also be realised by inserting a material into or onto another in a similar way in which ivy surrounds and infects the outside and inside of a trees trunk and branches.

A process which I have been really interested in is marquetry. The idea of experimenting using plastics rather than mother of pearl or wood could have interesting outcomes. I've experimented with perspex for a starting point before I test out various shades of wood. I have seen a few examples of this process around, its a really interesting media and could be a niche or process I could take forward into my final project if I do end up making furniture.

I seem to have an obsession with the lazer cutter and realised last year that marquetry could be created much more quickly and easily using it, although I will be experimenting with original techniques also. I slightly manipulated an image of a flea and cut the same shapes from birch ply and perspex. It's come out okay not sure on the colour it probably would be nicer with wood on wood, but it was a successful experiment and I know that lazer cut marquetry is possible now.




A quick idea was to use the birch offcuts as a collection of parasitic badges and a ridiculous amount worn at the same is quite an interesting idea.. well it looks pretty interesting, and saves on waste. Collections of objects could definately be something I should look at and could be used with different medias.Its made me think about things that hook to clothes or surfaces like walls.