Artist with scroll saw turns café into gallery

ASHTON, Idaho – The Fall River Cafe in Ashton turned into a museum as soon as Gene Lyford started hanging his woodworking pieces. After covering walls at his home, Lyford started hanging the wood inlay collages in his son’s restaurant in January.

Now, visitors wander and gaze at the gallery of 35 intarsia wood characters.

Lyford is one of the area’s intarsia artists, a rare art form that involves using a scroll saw to cut wood collages. Intarsian artists fit together different types of wood cut into small pieces to form collages that resemble animals, characters and people.

Intarsia originated in Europe and is named after the Greek word meaning “inlay.”

“Intarsia is not a popular hobby because it is time-consuming,” Lyford said.

Lyford’s artwork takes three weeks to a month to complete. He cuts 100 to 300 pieces of wood, then sands and fits the puzzle-like pieces together. Lyford uses traditional woods such as oak or aspen, but he also incorporates exotic varieties such as African ebony or Brazilian wood. The collages come to life when a final coat of lacquer enhances the shades of wood.

In two years, he has finished 157 intarsia creations including an American Indian, elk, eagle and human face. Lyford doesn’t keep track of labor hours or wood prices that go into his pieces. However, Lyford said some restaurant customers have offered him as much as $800 for his intarsia. The answer is always the same.

“I don’t want to sell them,” Lyford said. “If I start taking requests, then it becomes a job.”

Lyford, a retired industrial food supplier, said he wants to keep his work just a hobby.

“I don’t want a job,” Lyford said. “I’m retired now.”

However, Kelly Richey of Ashton will be quitting her full-time job to keep up with requests for her intarsia. She sells her work for $25 to $40.

“The cafe I sell my work at told me I either need to stop trying to sell them or do it as just a hobby,” Richey said.

Richey — like Lyford and others — decided to try an intarsia pattern inserted in a magazine for scroll-saw users four years ago.

Bonnie Berry, a woodworker from Idaho Falls, has tried an occasional intarsia pattern but only does the art by request.

“I only do it if people ask because it is very intensive,” Berry said.

Lyford always looks for challenging patterns. He buys them on the Internet from as far away as Australia and doesn’t like to do the same pattern twice.

“People say that I’m an artist,” Lyford said. “I say, ‘I’m not an artist, just a guy with a scroll saw.’ “