Tom is a talented Intarsia artist, preferring to work on large detailed pictures.  He works in one bay of his three car garage since Intarsia doesn't require a lot of space.  His Kirges inflatable sander makes shaping a piece of cake he tells us (Tom and his Kirges are pictured right).  Finishing is a matter of a lot of hand sanding after the shaping is done.  Intarsia occupies about 30+ hours of Tom's average week.  The skill he applies to his Intarsia pictures has been acquired in only one and a half years, making him a very quick learner, but some of it may be genetic, since Tom's Dad did a lot of woodwork.

Here we see Tom at work in his shop.  If a newcomer were to drop by, his advise would be "Don't be afraid of it, it's not hard as it may appear.  Practice on inexpensive pine until you are comfortable and then go for it"!

Below, Tom passes on some personal information and a little about the history of Intarsia:

"Hi, everyone, my name is Tom Cwynar and I live in Corona, California.  I work for a major aerospace company and have been with them for 28 years.  For anyone who doesn't know where Corona is, it's East of Los Angeles, near Riverside.  I have a unique hobby called Intarsia.  Intarsia is an ancient art form dating back to 15th century Italy and is defined as 'the making of decorative and pictorial mosaics by laying precious and exotic materials into or onto a groundwork of solid wood'.  It inspired both marquetry and inlay.

An Intarsia picture consists of transferring a pattern to the wood utilizing the correct grain direction for the particular piece, cutting the piece out, shaping it and sanding it smooth.  Some pieces are shimmed to make them thicker and some are sanded thinner.  This creates a 3 dimensional picture.  All the pieces are then finished with clear lacquer or polyurethane and glued to a backing board.  They can either be framed with a full background or freeform.

Becoming an Intarsia artist was almost accidental.  I didn't know what the word Intarsia meant, so I looked it up and got interested.  After doing some web surfing and finding a very well written book on the subject, I had to try it.  Using exotic and domestic woods for their color and grain pattern to create a picture is addicting.

In the past year and a half I've made approximately 85 different pictures ranging from a 9 piece chipmunk to a 300 piece motorcycle.  I started using commercial patterns and have graduated into designing my own.  The latter is much more satisfying.

My other hobbies include model building and street rodding.  Thank you for letting me share my interests with you."

Here are some samples of Tom's exquisite and detailed Intarsia artistry.  You'll find these items 
and others by Tom up for bid on Woodworkers Auction.
 
 

You can ask Tom a question or contact him at tomcw@earthlink.net or visit his website at 
http://www.home.earthlink.net/~tomcw/