Fretboard inlay

Here is the first of two inlays (original print on left) that will be on the fretboard. At just over 7 inches long and consisting of approximately 1500 pieces it's well on it's way to being a part of something that has never been done before in terms of scale and the amount of detail. In the final the fretboard will be ebony and have little snowflakes in the background. Materials: Awabi, crushed pearl, black and blue Atlante, bone, Corian (several colors), dyed wood veneers (red, brown, black and blue detail lines), coral, Mahogany, Spiny oyster, red micarta and brass.

The close-up shows the detail of the dress, composed of about 1000 tiny triangles of Awabi shell pieced together to form lotus flowers, the red ink between the larger triangles (comprised of three smaller ones) creates the detail lines. If you look closely you will see that the point of each corner is the center of a lotus as well as the an outer "point" of another flower which makes the dress seem to change each time you look at it. The Suzuki Harunobu original was carved from a block of wood which had to be an amazing feat!

I originally figured 400 hours for this project...I may have underestimated!!!