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©Dušan Rakić
©Dušan Rakić
©Dušan Rakić
©Dušan Rakić
©Dušan Rakić

Dušan Rakić

  • Wood marquetry maker
  • Temerin, Serbia
  • Master Artisan
Dušan Rakić Wood marquetry maker
Contact
Serbian, English, Russian
Hours:
By appointment only
Phone:
+381 631904218
©Dušan Rakić

Revealing the inner beauty of trees

  • • Dušan describes the craft of marquetry as wood surgery
  • • The veneer texture is a powerful storytelling element
  • • Love for his craft has led to international recognition

The imagination of Dušan Rakić, an archivist by vocation and later a student of philosophy, was captured in his early childhood by a family friend who introduced him to the craft of marquetry. Mesmerised by the beauty of the inner world of trees, he started his workshop in 2012. Intimate connection to nature through the marquetry technique requires constant focus paired with high concentration while at the same time staying calm and patient. Dušan often refers to his craft as “wood surgery” as the gentleness of the scalpel movement and precision of the cuts are essential. He continues to learn and explore new ways of assembling wood pieces of vibrant texture and colour from a desk at the place of his birth, in Temerin.

Read the full interview

Works

  • ©Dušan Rakić
  • ©Dušan Rakić
  • ©Dušan Rakić
  • ©Dušan Rakić
  • ©Dušan Rakić
Photo: ©Dušan Rakić
Andrea Vesalius

This wood marquetry wall panel is made from a multiplicity of natural veneers. The wall panel was commissioned by the International Society for the History of Medicine for the cover page of their e-journal "Vesalius". It depicts surgeon Andrea Vesalius (1514–64) in different shades of red, white and dark veneers contrasting to achieve a dramatic composition.

Length 40 cm
Width 50 cm
Height 1 cm

Photo: ©Dušan Rakić
Cavalry Skirmish

This intricate wood marquetery piece, Cavalry Skirmish, is an interior wall panel made from a large number of different natural veneers. The wall piece is Dušan Rakić’s interpretation of Giorgio Vasari’s 1558 Cavalry Skirmish. Given that drawing is the foundation of all applied art, Dušan thought that the most studious improvement for his marquetry technique was through the study of works by old masters, converting these into marquetry drawings.

Photo: ©Dušan Rakić
St John the Baptist

This intricate wooden marquetry piece of St John the Baptist is an interior wall panel made of a large number of different natural veneers. Dark shades of brown are made up of a large range of walnut veneers. The creation of the panel took two months and over 1,000 cut veneer details.

Length 49 cm
Width 62 cm
Height 1.2 cm

Photo: ©Dušan Rakić
The migration of the Serbs

This wooden marquetry panel, The migration of the Serbs, is an interior wall panel made of a large number of different natural veneers. The monumental piece, commissioned for a governmental institution, took over two years of intensive work to create. The panel is composed of 6,900 pieces of cut veneer details.

Length 165 cm
Width 123 cm
Height 1.8 cm

Photo: ©Dušan Rakić
Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser

This wood marquetry portrait of Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser, in honour of elegance and beauty, is an interior wall panel made of many different natural veneers. In essence, the biggest challenge in wood marquetry is to show portraits of younger people or children, because their faces do not have wrinkles like the faces of older people. Expressing such faces requires the ability to harmonise and shade many similar types of orange, yellow, red or cream-white veneers.

Length 62 cm
Width 80 cm
Height 1.2 cm

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