Synopsis: Go step by step through Jason Andrew Hernandez’s process as he assembles a parquetry pattern for the tabletop he designed. This one depicts farmland as seen from above.

Photo: Jason Andrew Hernandez

To make the parquetry top for his coffee table (see the back cover), Jason Andrew Hernandez did initial design work at the drafting table before drawing the pattern full scale in pencil on a sheet of 1⁄4-in. MDF. He bandsawed veneers from a couple of solid planks, smoothing the sheets with a wide belt sander and finishing with slices a heavy 1⁄16 in. thick. As he cut and fit the tiles, he followed his drawing carefully, but deviated in places where the grain and color of individual pieces guided him. He enjoyed choosing and placing the tiles, comparing the process to working with images. Once all the rectilinear pieces were edge-glued into a sheet, he routed out the two circular spaces—“a nerve-wracking experience,” he says—and created mating circles to fit in them (see photos, next page). He used a vacuum press to glue the finished sheet to a 1-1⁄2-in.-thick substrate made of ApplePly with a 2-in.-wide lip of solid claro walnut.

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