John Sedgwick, President of the Canadian Marquetry Society, presents some examples of his work.

John began Marquetry as a boy in England during 1956 after receiving a kit for his birthday. John attended technical college and served for two years in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers of the British Army. After his service he emigrated to Canada in 1961.

For the next 27 years, he worked on building his own business, equipment design, engineering and manufacturing, of which he is now the President and Senior partner. Marquetry has served as a relaxation and over the years he has extended his interests to include all aspects of wood working.

Like a lot of Marquetrians he has been asked to make repairs to damaged pieces of Marquetry. He says that most repairs are to poor quality recent (1960-1990) production furniture. However, a few years ago a telephone request for repairs turned out to be 1846 music box. The Marquetry was in such poor shape that John elected to reproduce it rather than repair it. John's work pleased the collector, who owns, buys, and sells music boxes, and as a result, he has had an endless supply to work on ever since.

For the past few years, John has been teaching a one week course at the Haliburton School of fine Art. Haliburton is a Northern Ontario vacation area in the Muskoka lakes region. In 1983, John was instrumental in starting the The Marquetry Society of Canada. He also participates at Wood and Hobby shows and gives work shops at the Society's meetings.

Take a look at The Canoe, this is one of John's oldest pictures still in his possession. Since the late 50's John has done many other pictures and furniture inlays which are scattered from Australia to the UK.

One of John's recent projects was a scale grand piano which was completed over a period of three years. From the picture in the gallery, you can see that this project offered many challenges, and for John this is the principal objective. Lee Valley Tools have featured it in their 1997 calendar.

I hope you take the time to review John's wonderful and detailed work. Especially look at the Rocky Mountain High picture, for which there are detailed sections to look at. As for myself, I know I have a lot to learn about Marquetry. Seeing the quality and high standards set by John has motivated me even more (once I have finished these pages!!) to continue in the pursuit of learning and practicing the Art of Marquetry.

Click here to see his work or to contact John, mail to: johnpioneer@skylinc.net.