AIC's 46th Annual Meeting

As the earlier specialized skills for making intricate inlay and marquetry become less practiced, digital cutting methods continue to develop and become more accessible. We incorporated three digital processes, waterjet, laser, and CNC, to reproduce small repeating inlay patterns on two pieces of mid-1880’s furniture. 
One furniture piece was an aesthetic style worktable made by George Schastey & Co., NY, for which multiple similar pieces of brass and zinc veneer, each about ½” x ¾” x 1 mm thick, were reproduced by waterjet. For the second furniture piece, a pair of Greco-Pompeian style piano stools made by Johnstone Norman & Co., London, four similar monograms were replicated, using CO2 laser to cut three densities of wood, and CNC milling for mother-of-pearl parts.
This is a broad description of the furniture and their conservation treatments, a comparison of the digital cutting processes, and an overview of basic terminology useful for collaborating with fabricators when similar projects are being considered.