Intarsia

Intarsia builds a picture or pattern entirely from individually shaped pieces of wood, each cut to its own exact outline and fitted edge-to-edge against its neighbors, typically using different wood species' natural colors to do the work paint or stain would otherwise do -- a light species for a sky, a dark one for a shadow, without any solid background panel underneath tying them together. It's closely related to inlay but distinct: inlay sets shaped pieces into a surrounding solid background; intarsia's pieces are the entire composition, fitted together like a picture puzzle with the joints between pieces doing double duty as both structure and outline.

Individual pieces are often shaped and slightly domed or varied in thickness before final assembly, adding a subtle relief, sculptural quality most inlay work doesn't attempt.