Meet Hans Boecher: Wood Artist
I have always been fascinated with wood. In high school I started making furniture for my mother and these items have remained in the family to this day.
Duty called and I served 24 years in the military. After retiring in 1992, my interest in wood sprang forth again and I started experimenting — furniture, painted wood, lighthouses, windmills, etc. I was reading a magazine about wood one day and ran across an article about intarsia. Intarsia is a thirteenth century Italian art form consisting of mosaic pictures in wood. I decided to try my hand at it and fell in love with the beauty of this art form.
In the beginning, it was more a hobby. I made various pieces of intarsia and gave them away to family and friends. After a while, I began receiving phone calls from people who had seen my work and the idea began to form that I could possibly sell my product. In 1998, I embarked on the art and craft show market and the rest is history!
I use hard and soft wood (i.e. walnut, mahogany, cherry, pine, beech, holly, ash – to name a few) and exotic wood from Africa and South America. Some pictures have over 300 pieces. Each piece is carefully cut with a scroll saw and then sanded which gives the item a 3 dimensional affect. An outline of the project is cut using plywood and the various pieces are clued together and then sprayed with 3 coats of polyurethane.
Most of my intarsia pieces have an animal, nautical or wild life theme. I have also expanded my craft to include a ships wheel table with an intarsia theme. I do accept custom orders, and you can email me at TheWeekendWoodshop@yahoo.com.