Chelmsford

We at St Albans have always had a good relationship with the members of Chelmsford Marquetry Group and it was a natural advancement for the two groups to arrange a biannual competition so that we could meet socially.
So rules were drawn up which included, a very successful way of judging. This comprised of numbering each exhibit and having similarly numbered boxes. All in attendance places a £1 in the box bearing the number of their choice of exhibit. The box  holding the most money wins.
The money goes to a local charity and no one has disputed the result, so far!

The first competition was hosted by Chelmsford in 1999 and was to be an interpretation of a line drawing of birds in flight.
The winning picture was Ted Neale of St Albans with his flying swans below.

For 2002 Alan Townsend produced trinket boxes to be decorated using marquetry.

This gave plenty of scope for initiative patterns and pictures.

As we (St Albans) were to host the National Exhibition in 2003, I chose a Roman key pattern with no success!

Here is a sample of the entries, which unfortunately does not contain Alan Townsend’s winning entry.

Not sour grapes, just didn’t have a photograph!

The 2006 competition at Chelmsford was more challenging. 

We were provided with monochrome drawings of Vetriano characters with which to compose a picture using two of the drawings.

Alan Townsend won with a three-veneer picture.

On the left is an example by Enrico Maestranzi  showing the high standard achieved.

2008 saw the Harrow Group join the competition at St Albans.

Alan Townsend produced mdf Tissue Boxes to be decorated with marquetry.