Bob is one of the best Marquetry Artists around.
Here are a few examples of his work!!
Robert Swanson is a retired Air Force officer whose 28 year military
career was spent
in various aspects of mapping, charting and geodesy. He has
had a lifelong interest in
woodworking and has been an avid marquetarian since the late l960's.
(click on
a thumbnail to see an enlargement and use the "back" button on your browser
to get back!)
Just a few words about these pictures: They are part of a book
called The Lindisfarne Gospels which was created by monks living in a monastery
on Holy Island. This island is just off the east coast of England and a
few miles south of the Scottish border. These Gospels date from about 698
AD and Holy Island was the object of the first Viking raid on the English
coast. For their safety, the Lindisfarne Gospels were removed from the
island and have eventually come to the British Library in London, where
they remain today. Each of these portraits includes the Greek word “Oagios”,
which means “holy” or “saint”, preceeding the name of the Evangelist (Mattheus/Matthew;
Marcus/Mark; Lucas/Luke and Iohannes/John). Each of these evangelists had
a symbol and at the top of each portrait are Latin words whch tell what
the symbol (imago) is (a man/hominis; a lion/leonis; a caif/vituli and
an eagle/acquilae).
My version of these portraits measure 23 1/2 inches wide by 28 1/2
inches high.
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A WORLD OF WOOD BY ROBERT SWANSON
This "world of wood" is a geometric form called an icosahedron,
which,
mathematically, is a regular solid bound by 20 plane facets.
In an
icosahedron, these 20 facets are equilateral triangles. These
20 triangles
are subdivided into smaller triangles, each of which is represented
by a
distinct kind of wood. Accordingly, this world displays 60
different kinds
of wood . In the base of this display there is a drawer which
contains a
schematic of the globe and a descriptive listing of each of the
60 woods.
The curved meridian on which the world rotates was constructed of
l0
steam-bent laminations of walnut and two strips of maple veneer.
The
meridian is mounted tro the base so that the world's poles are about
23
degrees from vertical, approximating the actual relationship of
our earth's
poles to the plane of its orbit around the sun. The axles
and bushings on
which the world rotates were turned from lignum vitae.
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