The time to plan for a truly unique gift to give someone this Christmas or Hanukah is now. We came across the work of Mark Assante of MARXDesignerDisplay who works in wood intarsia. The term, “intarsia” comes from the knitting world where it is a technique used to create patterns with multiple colors.  In woodworking, fields of different colors and materials appear to be inlaid in one another –  fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. Using a client’s photograph as a guide, Assante transforms the image into a wood intarsia portrait. Compared to other wood intarsia creations, these seem reasonably priced with most ready-made projects retailing for under $100 (a custom item may be more).

A unique gift idea.