American Marquetry Society

AMS Member Profile ~ Ernest (Ernie) Mills ~

my contact is [email protected]
I finished cutting my first piece in January 2010. I had retired a few years earlier and took up woodturning at the club here in Sun City West. In a few years I literally got “Bowled Out” and remembered that my old boss, who had retired to San Diego, had been cutting marquetry since 1972.
I gave Joe a call and the seed was sown. Since he was the North American Representative for the Marquetry Society in Britain, I quickly joined that organization.
What a great bunch of marquetarians they turned out to be. I got help from many and nobody was ever too busy to help answer my questions. So please allow me to thank the following people:

  Joe Monks in San Diego (mentor), Peter White the Chairman of the British Society (mentor), Alan Townsend and Margaret Bonnett (much help).

I later joined the American Society and also found this organization to be very helpful and friendly. Although I have used the scroll saw for other woodworking projects, I have never used it in Marquetry.
I started using the scalpel and am still using it.
I nominally use the ‘window’ method with many variations I developed out of necessity to achieve the effects I needed.
In my British membership package I received a kit of a Harbor scene. This is the only kit I have ever made. Although I have used the scroll saw for other woodworking projects, I never use it in Marquetry.
I started using the scalpel and am still using it. I nominally use the ‘window’ method with many variations I developed out of necessity to  achieve the effects I needed. 

The Buttes of Monument Valley, Arizona

The rest of my pieces are composed from drawing, and personal photographs that I use to create the image I want.

I was once asked what veneer I used in such and such a piece. I don’t know since I pick the veneer color from my palette of veneer colors to achieve my picture.
Although I have used the scroll saw for other woodworking projects, I have never use it in Marquetry. 
In my British membership package I received a kit of a Harbor scene. This is the only kit I have ever made.
The rest of my pieces are composed from drawing, and personal photographs that I use to create the image I want.
My other hobbies include computing, web site design, lawn bowling (in summer), wood working, keyboarding and amateur radio, call sign WM2U.
I am a retired Research Scientist, (non PhD) and ran an instrument

The Anasazi

research lab at NY Sate Dept. of Heath where I designed and built Ion Optic devices for Mass Spectrometers and many other analytical Instruments.



I have built many web sites and I am web master at:

my High School:  http://www.wintonian.org/
Lawn Bowling club;   http://www.scwlawnbowls.com/ 
Woodworking club;  http://www.scwwoodshop.com/
my WM2U site; http://www.qsl.net/wm2u/
Ham Contesting ; http://www.n2ty.org/seasons/tara_seasons.html American Marquetry Society; http://www.americanmarquetrysociety.com/

I am currently working on 'thinning out' some of these. Web site maintenance is a lot of time consuming work.

The Navajo  


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