The grooves are produced either by scribing and hand carving or by CNC machining. CNC machining provides the ability to make artworks from pictures, after several procedures to convert the picture to vector and subsequently to g-code.

0.5, 0.6 or 0.8 mm thick by 1.2 or 1.6 mm width copper or brass strips are used. The size of the strip is determined by the size and complexity of the image.

Copper dot inlay:

Pictures undergo several stages in order to produce a workable template for copper dot inlay. A picture could take well over 50 hours to be workable.

The template will be laid on the wood surface to carefully drill the dots. 0.5 or 0.6 mm copper or brass wires are used. The size of the wire is determined by the size and complexity (total number of dots) of the image.

Planting the wire is done totally by hand. A 250x330 mm template could well have as many as 4000 to 12000 dots.

Finishing:

After sanding and polishing, the artworks will be stained and varnished. Water based stains are used since they are much more resistant to fading and discoloration than spirit base or oil base stains. To keep the traditional look, spirit base shellac or boiled linseed oil varnish are applied. Weathering protection is done by boiled linseed oil.

Frames:

Are a combination of CNC engraving and manual inlaying.