Masters of Modern Marquetry
Emma Wood's contemporary marquetry brings dynamism to both the technique and her pieces. She uses a combination of traditional skills, bright colours, and graphic designs and applies them to contemporary, usable objects. Emma is fascinated by the philosophy of maths and where it appears around us. Mathematical patterns in nature are often the inspiration for her designs.
Emma is a surfer and the idea of making a marquetry surfboard was compelling. She was excited by the difficulty and challenged by being told it would not be possible. A surfboard has both convex and concave areas, where those areas meet is particularly complicated. If you try lifting diagonally opposite corners of a square piece of paper and simultaneously pull down the other two corners, you will see the difficulty. Add in that wooden veneer will want to split along its grain and crack across it and the achievement starts to seem miraculous. Emma spent two years researching and trialling to find a solution.
Emma works with expert craftsmen both in the UK and Mexico to shape her surfboards, skateboards, and longboards. The technical engineering and hydrodynamics are calculated and tested and the boards not only look beautiful but function beautifully too. The surfboards are made from FSC certified balsa and finished with bio resin, making them more hardwearing and sustainable than traditional boards, which have a high environmental impact.
Emma lives with her young family and dogs in the Black Mountains in Wales. She also spends time in Ireland and Mexico City.
