|
Here is part of the bird I have cut out of paua abalone for the dreadnought peghead. I know....the breastpiece doesn't quite fit yet....I still have more filing to do! |
Above is the rose I cut from twelve separate pieces of red and green abalone. The customer lived in a section of town called the "Rosegarden" and has backyard birdhouses, so he had asked if I could somehow incorporate the two ideas into the peghead inlay. I came up with the idea of a bird kind of hovering by a rose on a stem. I'd never done inlay more elaborate than block letters, so this was indeed a challenge for me! It was kind of tricky to figure out a way to make it all fit gracefully amid the tuner holes.... |
This is the peghead shape the customer wanted. I bound it in ebony and holly. |
|
After painstakingly cutting the very thin rose stem, and routing out the cavities for the stem, rose, and bird, I placed the pieces in the cavities to see if they would fit.... |
They did fit, so I went ahead, cut out the initials (7 pieces!), cut some leaves for the rose, and routed out the cavities for those. Then I epoxied them in, filled the gaps with epoxy mixed with rosewood dust, let it all harden, and finally sanded it smooth. |
Here's the finished product, after the guitar's finish has been applied and the tuners installed. Not bad for my first fancy inlay job, huh? |
| Back to "Building Process" Page |