Jeu de fond is the French term for a repeating patterned ground, ranging from simple geometry to intricate gridwork with marquetry set within it. These grounds form the backgrounds of some of the greatest pieces of French furniture, and their patterns rely heavily on thoughtful design and wood selection. The week will progress from the simplest motifs to the most intricate. Students will begin with large shapes cut by hand using a veneer saw, where the effect comes from the wood rather than the complexity of the cutting. These patterns will include a bookmatch, a four-way match, and a checkerboard. From there, students will move to smaller, more intricate geometric patterns, including the jeu de cube, diamonds, and related designs. Students will make their own jigs and discover how many patterns can be created with a single jig. The lozenge cut with the cube jig is the same shape used to create cubes, stars, hexagons, and diamond fields. The only changes are the choice of wood, arrangement of the pieces, and direction of the grain. Because not every repeating ground is straight-sided, students will also cut a fish-scale ground on the chevalet using a Boulle packet. A single cutting will produce two finished panels with reversed grain patterns. Along the way, students will learn two methods for holding a ground together during assembly: applying veneer tape across the face or, for more complex patterns, creating and using an assembly board. An assembly board consists of a sheet of paper stretched over a panel, onto which the pieces are glued face down with hot hide glue. The week will conclude with a game in which students are given a historical pattern and asked to determine how it was made. Working backward from real examples is one of the fastest ways to understand how these grounds were constructed. Students will leave with finished panels representing each stage of the week.