World map (above): 2,500 pieces, 123 species, nearly 200 hours, 60" x 38.5" dimensions: one planet.

"The world gets bigger for me every day," says Dan Bredemeier: an ironic comment from a man who makes maps out of tiny pieces of veneer. He's created over 100 since 1990, when he "woke up one day, and the most important thing I had to do was make a wooden map."

Minnesota's Whitefish Lakes Area proved a little easier!

Dan's marquetry maps, displayed at his Rockler Woodworking and Hardware workplace, entail research on the geographic, political and historical factors of an area - for accuracy and "fun facts" to include. That, and putting them together, are time-consuming, but not difficult: "It's all done with an X-Acto® knife blade and a chisel. My tools literally fit in a shoebox."

Using veneer, says Dan, is also easy, and cheap. Plus, he likes the opportunity to work with a variety of species. Some, like the amboyna and mappa burls he used in a map for his brother, he doubts will ever be available in the form of lumber. The hardest part of the maps? Getting the glue choices right, which depends on a variety of factors. But then that's the sort of question Dan fields all the time as president of the American Marquetry Society. Their web site is at www.americanmarquetarian.com

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