MarqART Gift Shop is the online retail web store selling products created by the marquetry artist and craftsman Randy West.
The products in this store are the result of a shared passion in the unique art of marquetry in the West family for over 3 generations. Based in Windsor, CO, Randy designs and handcrafts each Marq ART Wood Design product with support from his family.
MarqART comes from the combination of the words Marquetry and Art. The proprietary process used in creating a MarqART Wood Design took Randy over 25 years to develop.
A Family of Craftsmen
Randy is a 3rd generation marquetry craftsman. His brother shares his passion and they started out in their teens developing a business out of a high school hobby of creating cut-coin jewelry.
When they left for college, their father bought them out with the intention of giving it a professional makeover. Belt buckle designs were all the rage in those days and Randy’s father saw an opportunity with cut coin jewelry designs for belt buckles.
That is when Uncle Al jumped in and offered some Marquetry designs. Uncle Al learned the art from Randy’s grandfather, a traditional craftsman. Needless to say, the Marquetry belt buckles quickly outpaced the cut coin ones. In the meanwhile, Randy had returned home and his natural affinity to woodwork attracted him to the delicate, detailed elegance of marquetry.
Ancient Art – Modern Techniques
From those crude origins Randy applied several modern innovations that enhanced the level of detail and the quality of the wood designs. These include:
- Cutting the veneers with lasers (novel back in its day, but almost universally used for cutting veneers today).
- Creation of the black filler between the pieces of wood.
- Using a thick gloss finish to: eliminate any graining of the wood, even out differences in veneer thickness, and to give the art work a very smooth surface over all. This also eliminated the possibility that any piece of veneer wood separate from the base.
- Development of a thinner satin finish that would accomplish the same finish as the thicker gloss finish used in the buckles.
- Using UV blocking material to preserve and protect the artwork from fading.
- Development of a modern proprietary production process which ensures a higher quality finish
- Creation of art work that captures picturesque scenes at a greater level of detail and intricacy than was possible earlier
The entire MarqART Wood Design product range is handmade in the USA and involves specialized processes developed over a quarter century. MarqART sticks to the tradition of ancient craftsmen while using modern methods and techniques.
Unique Individuality
At the MarqART Gift Shop, each piece is uniquely individual, a one-of-a kind item that will only grow dearer with age. Every MarqART Wood Design creation is as unique as a snowflake. Due to the nature of the wood types used, their individual striations, the flow of grains, and the natural tonal variations in wood color, no two designs are exactly alike. With the natural progression of age each piece takes on an individual character that is all its own.
Every piece is handcrafted in a labor intensive and time-consuming process. The design and production preparations alone take anywhere from 50 to 100 hours for each design. An enormously pleasurable experience that is all the more satisfying when we hear the absolute delight in our customers’ voices when they receive their unique and personal MarqART Wood Design.
We are positive you will get as much pleasure from our products as we have had in making them!
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