retrosurfer1959 Posted February 22, 2011 Posted February 22, 2011 Andy thread made me feel guilty since Ive had some Inly jobs Ive wanted to do for quite some time. After seeing his I decided to get working on it so here are some of the inlay's not installed yet but cut out and completed. Turtle Fret markers. Some of you have seen the guitar with the sea turtle inlay's well I always planned on making some small turtle fret markers to replace simple dot's so here they are. The mermaid I was making cracked as many saw on Andy's post so instead I decided to do a Gypsy style dancer dancer design I had seen a pictiure of in pearl with a abalone scarf around her waist. Looks good rough cut should be pretty cool when carved and highlighted after inlay work completed. Here is everybody's chance to vote though should I add feet or leave it as is with just the toe of one shoe peeking out? if you look closely you can see light etching of some of the details that will be added including the show and even her face. And the final one here is a old style " Torch in Vase" or whatever they call it in MOP/Pearl for a old mandolin I'm working on this came out really well and should look great when scribed and detailed later after install. I actually cheated this time though and used my small Taig Mill to cut and finish the larger cuts this time, the Mill has not been computerized yet so it's still a manual process of cutting out each piece by hand and it's kind of like drawing with a Etch-N-Sketch but boy the cuts are clean. \:D/
Jeff-7 Posted February 22, 2011 Posted February 22, 2011 That is some awesome work Retro, if I may add my opinion I think the slipper poking out would be just fine.
57classic Posted February 22, 2011 Posted February 22, 2011 I really like your work retro. I think a rear pointed foot out of the back accentuating the flow of the dress would be a nice detail.
Andy R Posted February 22, 2011 Posted February 22, 2011 Awesome man! Now here is a real artist people! I like your gypsy just the way it is! Please post more of your work so I have some other ideas and techniques to steal er hum cough "Borrow"
dbreslauer Posted February 22, 2011 Posted February 22, 2011 wow, that is amazing! +1 on leaving it as is, looks like she's in motion... :)
stein Posted February 22, 2011 Posted February 22, 2011 really, really liking that harp girl. hard to say without seeing it on the instrument or what the feet would look like, but as it sits i don't see how it could be improved or any need. it actually moves me. the turtles is cute. i can see those being real cool on a fretbaord, especially with 2 at the twelve fret.
recsec Posted February 22, 2011 Posted February 22, 2011 Retro, I really like your work. I vote to keep the dancer the way she is, Post more when it's done.
TommyK Posted February 23, 2011 Posted February 23, 2011 Absolute art work. As far as the Gypsy Lady, You already have a toe sticking out. Adding legs below the skirt would make her disproportionately tall, unless, of course, you shortened the skirt You could cut out that second undulation from the right and replace it with a like shaped darker material. One toe looks good. two would make her look like a ballerina. That's just my opinion.
Tim Plains Posted February 23, 2011 Posted February 23, 2011 Nice! Are you also going to start building your own guitars? Think of all the guitars you could have...
icantbuyafender Posted February 23, 2011 Posted February 23, 2011 IMHO she needs combat boots. Black perloid ones. lol really tho, awesome work.
Dub-T-123 Posted February 23, 2011 Posted February 23, 2011 Nice! Are you also going to start building your own guitars? Think of all the guitars you could have... Have you seen retro's cocobolo (or whatever it is) acoustic? That thing looks incredible. Haha retro when I grow up I wanna be just like you :wub: Those turtles are sweet. I also really like the etching on the dancing girl. What did you use to etch it? I've etched some plates for printing but that's all I've done.
milod Posted February 23, 2011 Posted February 23, 2011 Gorgeous stuff.... Absolutely. As for the toe, whatever, my figuring is it's your guitar, your call. I kinda like it myself. My "fright" at this point would be, if you gave me the inlays, how badly would I screw up the fingerboard. But with that kinda talent and skill, I think you probably needn't worry. I don't really "envy" talent, because that suggests a dislike of the person who is gifted with it. But ... I'm not sure there's really another word that's more appropriate. If there were... I'd use it. <grin> Heck, I'd be scared to cut just enough for split parallelograms, and that's all straight lines. m
retrosurfer1959 Posted February 24, 2011 Author Posted February 24, 2011 Have you seen retro's cocobolo (or whatever it is) acoustic? That thing looks incredible. Haha retro when I grow up I wanna be just like you :wub: Those turtles are sweet. I also really like the etching on the dancing girl. What did you use to etch it? I've etched some plates for printing but that's all I've done. Thanks everybody - Shucks now I'm gonna get a big head . As for the etching tool I just used a pointed fine tip graver for engraving metal there nice and sharp and leave a fine line that really shows up with a bit of ink once they are set and sanded. Milod - the wood routing is actually pretty simple and pretty hard to mess up since it doesn't shatter, just a fine straight inlay router bit in Stew-Macs mini router, keep all the sawdust to mix with liquid superglue for fill and your set. Thank everybody for all the input on the feet the original sketch showed no feet at all but I didn't like how floaty she looked, to give a sense of motion but not floating a figure has to be grounded somehow. I sketched feet in about three or four different ways - but it lost the look I was after and started to resemble the little plastic ballerina's you see on jewelry boxes so I settled on just the single toe just pointing out from beneath the skirt. I liked the way it looked but wasn't sure so wanted some second opinions so thanks.
Andy R Posted February 24, 2011 Posted February 24, 2011 Thanks everybody - Shucks now I'm gonna get a big head . As for the etching tool I just used a pointed fine tip graver for engraving metal there nice and sharp and leave a fine line that really shows up with a bit of ink once they are set and sanded. Milod - the wood routing is actually pretty simple and pretty hard to mess up since it doesn't shatter, just a fine straight inlay router bit in Stew-Macs mini router, keep all the sawdust to mix with liquid superglue for fill and your set. Thank everybody for all the input on the feet the original sketch showed no feet at all but I didn't like how floaty she looked, to give a sense of motion but not floating a figure has to be grounded somehow. I sketched feet in about three or four different ways - but it lost the look I was after and started to resemble the little plastic ballerina's you see on jewelry boxes so I settled on just the single toe just pointing out from beneath the skirt. I liked the way it looked but wasn't sure so wanted some second opinions so thanks. Dang it! Now I want to do a severed Medusa headstock maybe with a hand holding it up to the top! maybe do the backside of the head on the reverse side of the headstock too....That would be cool! Maybe some little snakey inlays on the fretboard...or stone men or something...Uh well back to my rebuild....
milod Posted February 24, 2011 Posted February 24, 2011 Retro... Yeah, real easy. Sure. Okay. <grin> Sorry, I will never lose my longtime great respect for the talent and skill involved in fine inlay work and similar fine arts and crafts whether it's on guitars or otherwise. I have a friend here, for example, who not only is an exceptional sculptor, but who also casts his own bronzes up to life size... You guys are all artists... (Here's an example. Gotta brag on Tony a bit: http://www.westerngold.com/TRChytka.aspx) m
retrosurfer1959 Posted February 25, 2011 Author Posted February 25, 2011 thanks Milo art is like music I can't go to many days without working on something or I get pretty hard to be around it really is amazing how weird artist can get when were working. I finally finished a TRC I started the same time as the others it came out pretty cool even if the hummingbird turned out looking more like a sparrow I'm not much of a bird watcher.
stein Posted February 25, 2011 Posted February 25, 2011 IMHO she needs combat boots. Black perloid ones. lol really tho, awesome work. you know, come to think of it, if we were gonna change anything, it should be bigger breast. what were we thinking?
milod Posted February 25, 2011 Posted February 25, 2011 Retro... Here's a question for you: My 1950s Harmony jazz guitar has this problem: http://forum.gibson.com/index.php?/topic/63119-old-archtop-electric/page__p__855124__fromsearch__1# Would you let it be or replace? My thought is to let it be and just give the guitar the best possible cleaning, but then... I dunno. It already has replacement tuning pegs, bridge and probably tailpiece; the pick guard is gone. I'll guess that some others of us have similar "problems." What's your opinion? I don't think there's any way to get a match of the inlay with the word "harmony" on the peg head, so... <sigh> m
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