Personalised wooden objects in intarsia

What a personalised intarsia object is

An object is personalised when it carries something that belongs only to its owner: a name, a date, a saying, a coat of arms, a company's logo or a motif from their own region. On an object made in intarsia, this message is not a print. Every letter and every shape is its own piece of wood, inlaid flush into the surrounding surface.

That is what makes such objects what they are: the drawing has the colour and grain of real wood, it lies in the same plane as the surface, and it lasts as long as the object. It is also what they demand: every shape has to be something that can be cut and fitted as a piece of wood.

Four ways to personalise wood

If you want to put a name or a motif on wood, there are essentially four options. They differ in where the drawing sits and what it is made of:

• Print: paint on the surface. Quick and colourful, but a layer that can wear and that hides the grain.
• Engraving and pyrography: the surface is cut in or burnt dark. Durable, but in one colour: the drawing is always a darker version of the same wood.
• Carving or milling: the motif is worked out as a relief. Three-dimensional, but likewise from a single wood.
• Intarsia: the motif is made of a different wood, inlaid and sanded flush. The most work, but with real contrast between woods and no layer that could rub off.

How intarsia differs from related techniques such as marquetry and inlay is described in intarsia, marquetry and inlay.

Which motifs work

Intarsia thinks in areas. Every motif has to break down into a few clearly bounded areas, each of which gets one wood. So lettering, silhouettes, symbols, coats of arms and landscapes in outline work well. Difficult are all motifs that live on soft transitions: photos, faces, shading and gradients first have to be translated into two to four steps of lightness and lose a lot in the process.

Fine details, on the other hand, are possible if they are thought of as areas. The mountain panorama on Ich ♥ Bayern shows peaks, ridges and a row of trees, all as single shapes of light and dark wood. The smaller a detail, the more precisely it has to be cut; so the design should be made for the size of the object from the start (scaling veneer patterns).

Photo: Reihax

Lettering: bold or flowing

Lettering is the most common element of a personalisation. For short texts on a small surface, bold sans-serif typefaces are the safe choice: broad, even strokes stay readable even from some distance.

Photo: Reihax

A script, by contrast, gives a saying warmth and personality. It is possible in intarsia, as Dahoam is Dahoam on Ich ♥ Bayern shows, but it needs room: the thinnest parts of a letter must not get so narrow that they can no longer be cut cleanly. The finer the script, the bigger the text should be. More rules for readable lettering in wood are on the page DEIN TEXT HIER.

Photo: Reihax

Regional motifs and symbols

Regional motifs connect an object with a place. Ich ♥ Bayern carries four of them: the lettering, a mountain panorama, the lion in front of the diamond pattern, and the Bavarian saying Dahoam is Dahoam, roughly "home is home". The diamond pattern is itself a piece of geometric intarsia: every diamond is its own piece of veneer, light and dark in turn.

What holds for Bavaria holds for any region and any club: a coat of arms, a city skyline, a saying in dialect or a landmark can be translated into wood if they are made of clear areas. The colours of a coat of arms become steps of lightness, because wood knows no blue and no green. The familiar white and blue of the Bavarian diamonds become light and dark.

Photo: Reihax

Logos and corporate gifts

A logo in wood is a gift that does not look like a promotional item. For it to work, it needs translating. Three points decide:

• Areas rather than effects. Shadows, gradients and highlights fall away. What is left is the basic form of the logo in clear areas.
• Lightness rather than colour. Every colour of the logo becomes a step of lightness. Two colours that are equally light in the original need two clearly different woods.
• Size before completeness. Small additions such as a slogan under the logo become unreadable on a desk object. Better to leave them out or set them bigger.

How lightness and colour temperature behave against each other in wood is explained in contrast and colour temperature; how a design gets onto the veneer is covered in designing and transferring an intarsia.

Choosing the woods

For a personalisation two woods are usually enough: one for the surface, one for the motif. What decides is the difference in lightness between them. Light lettering on dark wood looks calm and refined, dark lettering on light wood more graphic and often even easier to read. More woods are worth it when a motif has several layers, a landscape with sky, mountain and foreground for instance. Wood species for intarsia gives an overview of suitable woods.

How Reihax personalises

Reihax personalises in two ways. With DEIN TEXT HIER you design the pen holder yourself in the editor on CherryCut: text, typeface and woods are yours to choose, and if you want more, you can start from a template or draw a motif of your own. Anything beyond the editor, a logo, a coat of arms, a corporate gift in a small series, can be requested through contact; for pieces made to order like these, maple and cherry are options too, which the fixed variants do not use. Ich ♥ Bayern shows what a fixed design for a region looks like, in a dark and a light version.

Photo: Reihax

Either way, the same workshop standard applies as for every Reihax object: every part of the motif is cut and fitted, the surface pressed, sanded flush and protected with hard-wax oil in a satin finish (cutting and fitting veneer). Care instructions are in caring for handmade wooden objects.