Inlaid work
Persian khatam is one of the Persian art of marquetry wherein the surface of wooden or metallic articles is decorated with pieces of wood, bone and metal cut in a variety of shapes and designs. Materials used in this craft can be gold, silver, brass , alminum and twisted wire. various types of inlaid articles and their quality are known by the size and geometrical designs. Smaller pieces result in a higher value of the art work.
This craft consists in the production of incrustation patterns ( generally star-shaped ), with thin sticks of wood ( ebony, teak, ziziphus, orange, rose), brass ( for golden parts ), camel bones ( white parts ). Ivory, gold or silver can also be used for collection objects. First, the wood, bone or metal pieces are cut into prisms with triangular bases and are put side by side of each other in such a way that their cross sections have regular geometric forms.
Then the cut pieces are put side by side on a thin sheet of wood and glued together. These sticks are assembled in triangular beams, assembled and glued in a strict order to create a geometrical motif such as a six-branch star included in a hexagon. Then the sheet is placed on various objects such as table, chair, box, frame etc.