Clavin

Hi Guys. I have seen a lot of moon and wolf inlays before, but I think this ones a little different. I didn't limit my moon to the basic pearl types out there. I made it more of a harvest moon, autumn colors. It's NOT shell. This one is mainly shells and recon stone. The moon is a special effect. Top secret but easy to figure out stuff :o) Lets see if someone can figure it out first.. Then maybe I'll budge No cheating by looking from other places! Thanks for looking! There is a fretboard and rosette that will be with this later. Craig L.

Alex, of course there is no way of knowing if it's plastic or not from a picture. I assumed it was because the color is so pale. Of course any photo editing could produce the same effect. The only real way to know is to either see it in person, or to give it the scratch test, if you really can't tell. One more way- turn it in different directons, if it changes color shadiong from light to dark it's pearl, if not most likely plastic. Either way it has to come out. C.Lavin

It needs to be replaced. They are plastic, and thin. Parts almost sanded though, that's why the dark areas are showing. It needs to be replaced with plastic to keep the same effect going. C.Lavin

Sorry Guys. I won't discuss pricing in a forum, and, each piece is unique, and they vary widely in price. I have to admit I charge less for things I personally want to do, versus something I HAVE to do. My works not cheap. Some would argue it's expensive, some would argue it's fair. I would argue it's a luxury item, and that is what custom inlay is. It's similar to custom jewelery at some level: valuable materials, time to design and create, and my work is all one of a kind. I throw away the hand drawn patterns after I am finished. Prices range in the low hundreds, to about $2,000.00 for full headstock and fretboard art, or higher. Some of the fancy Martin's inlaid By Larry Robinson go for well over $200,000.00 or more. There are many fancy inlaid martins all hand done that sell for the over $75,000.00 mark. Custom inlay isn't really about price at a certian point. It is art. I can't believe what some people pay for a small little painting! Just watch Antiques Roadshow! I know this doesn't help, and I'm not trying to be a pain. But any inlay I design for any of the next people will be a different price. Acoustic Guitar Magazine had a custom inlay article a few months ago, and most of the guys in that article were charging what amounts to $50.00 an hour including general materials ( shell and stone- not real gold, etc..) I guess that's about right. Craig L.

Thanks Guys! I have another almost completed, a wolf howling at the moon inlay coming up next. I know it's a common inlay theme but this one goes beyond the normal level of imagery. Pics soon hopefully. Craig L.

Thanks Guys. As far as materials go, I buy from just about everyone. Rescue pearl, Luthiers supply, and when I really need to not mess around I hit Chuck Ericson ( he has a $1000.00 minimum order, but he basically supplies the country. Almost everyone else's materials start at him). And Depaul is great to deal with, and carries shell types no one else carries. Rescue Pearl are also fantastic, and they carry recon stone at pre thicknessed sizes. Also Masecraft supply for shell, and stone, and just about everything else. But, you'll be prepping out all of the raw stock materials, and that takes up a lot of time. Just so your aware the recon stones are fantastic in inlays, but they take a lot of practice cutting. many are very fragile, way more than shell, and each slab has variations in it as well. Best of luck. Craig Lavin

Hi Guys. Here is my latest. It's mostly recon stones, and engraved with four different color inks/fillers.. red, white, purple, and black. It's on an acoustic 12 string headstock. This has become my personal favorite. I am going to do an entire guitar as a rainforest theme due to this inlay. This was for a client. Thanks for looking! Craig L.

Your welcome. Craig L Tried the acetone last night. Soak for 10-20 minutes and you can peel the paper & CA right off. My flash angles are pretty good for the most part, just a few sections that I want to recut. Some of pieces have heart material and they don't flash the same as the rest. Thanks for the tip, Craig. ←

Just scrape it off carefully with a razor blade. I do that to all my pieces before gluing anyway. Flash angle means everything. Most people don't pay attention to it enough, or at all. Best of luck. Craig L.

Make a tracing of the fretboard the vine is going to go over. make sure you add the fret slot lines. Lay out the vine pattern so the cuts through the vine line up exactly with the fret slots. Choose shell pieces to best fit. Make sure when you make your pattern copies that you don't re-size them, or the fret breaks will be off. That's how you handle fret slots/breaks in the inlay. When you are done you won't have any breaks visible. They will all be covered over by frets. Now, for where the vine curls (side pieces) attatch to the main part of the vine, just make sure that: 1) The flash angles all match- (actually this goes for the main central vine as well) shell has a natural bright, and off luminescence depending on what angle you look at it. Abalam is less so, but thats a different story. I'm talking about real shell. When you glue up your pieces make sure all the pieces flash the same way. That will keep the look consistant. A vine with dead areas looks bad. Any parts of the offshoot vines from the main central part that do go through frets just treat as the other way. Cut them along the fret slots in your original pattern. If you plan out everything properly your vine should look as if it's all relatively one piece. I don't have any to show you as personally I can't stand vines. Trust me this is how you do it. Take your time with drawing and planning. It may not be the most fun or cool part, but in the end your guitar should hopefully well outlast any time spent planning. It's worth it. C. Lavin www.handcraftinlay.com

I'm not interested in working in maple for this particular project, or retrofitting holes. I am sure I will go overbudget on time. Best of luck. C. Lavin

Steve, if you have the actual inlays I can maybe help you. What's the fretboard wood? I don't pull frets, and I don't re-fret either. Someone else would do those stages. I know a great luthier right down here by me that definity can do that. I would need to get his price for you. Let me know. C.Lavin www.handcraftinlay.com

I use a standard Foredom router, and Stew-Mac spirial downcut bits. As for hours, on my own pieces such as this one I don't really keep track. If I had to guess, including researching images, design, drawing, layout, re-drawing for cleanup, then edits, redraws, etc.. then patterning, choosing matrials, cutting, etc.. engraving, I'd say at least 75-100 so far. How many ahead? Possibly another 20. Maybe more? Craig

This IS on the headstock, BUT, due to the "new" (not so new actually) tuning button free Steinberger tuners (see Stew-Mac), all of the tuning keys will fit neatly out in front of the inlay, inset into the ebony. This image will remain un-tuned! Since thier are no tuner keys to stick out of the sides, they can fit anywhere (relatively) on the headstock! Inlayers rejoice! Your art can now be seen on headstocks un-edited! Craig L

For thicknessing anything I use a small PREAC ship-model building sander. Of course now Stew-Mac sells a special adapter kit for your drill press, but I don't have one of those. Just a small model, specifically for thicknessing small pieces like recon stone, plastics, and corians, woods, etc.. Craig

Hi Dave! No, it's me that's glad to see you getting around still. I saw your heading to a few shows soon. Great! Your guitars are beautiful. As for Lowden guitars, The original "Lowden guitars" that was factory run has become Avalon, and a new Lowden guitars "factory" * (but still relatively hand made I believe, under George's direction) has recently begun. I did this inlay for that division, so at least the inlay was entirely hand made! George also builds completely by hand (his own) in his own personal shop as well, but I would believe those cost a litle more. I have done things for both divisions of George's companies. My apologies if any details company related are wrong. I do believe this is accurate though. The Lowden site has been down a bit, but George's site does work. Craig

Don't worry! I did this inlay because my little one of 17 months love fishes as much as his mom and dad.... He shouts out Nemo whenever he see the headstock! I did do it on purpose for that reason. I honestly thought about putting Nemo on the back of the headstock, but since this guitar may/hopefully get some press, I am reluctant to do anything copywrite related.. Thanks for looking! Craig. L

Masecraft supply sells pieces that are about 1.5" by 4" for use in knife handle making. I still have to take the time to thickness it down to .06 or so before it's useable for inlay. C. Lavin

I don't ever normally get to see the finished guitars. Just the pieces, fretboards, headstock overlays.. etc.. This was a custom commission from a client of George's new company. This was done FOR Lowden guitars. It's not store purchased. It's still market, not aftermarket. Craig

Thanks ooten2. I love coffee! Actually I think the coffee keeps me focused more. It's hard to understand.. Most people think I am probably this low key guy thats can sit still in a chair for days.. In actuality I am pretty high energy. Somehow or another I manage to stay focused, and relatively patient! It's the end results that I hope to achieve that keep me going. It's wierd.. Craig

Thanks Devon.. I underdstand that large image inlay is definitly not for everyone, and that a wood's natural beauty has to show through. That's one of the reasons my guitars have completely BARE body fronts. I personally don't like inlay on the front of the body. The back, absolutely, but wood does need to be seen, especially a high end quilt! This body is lake salvaged 5A quilt. No inlay is going on the front, just a paua purfling, with black edges. Deep greens and blues on a brown natural "stain quilt" Thanks for looking! C.Lavin

Hi guys. Here is the fretboard and headstock from Living Sea-3. It's the most complex series of inlays I have done to date. More photo-real than anything previously. It has to be over 500 pieces total so far. please see the other links for the fingerboard images. Yes there is more going on this guitar- the back. Any questions please ask! Thanks as always for looking! Craig Lavin http://www.handcraftinlay.com/livingsea3.html

Thanks erikbojerik.. Well, this is actually a re-do inlay. The first one was quite different. I spent at least 15-20 hours on it (the first one) with the design, research, etc.. just coming up with the pattern. It took hours to cut, and used up materials, etc.. engraving.. basically I was totally unhappy with the quality of it after it was completed. It now sits in my shop as a reminder of what sub-par work looks like, so I never do that again! This one is the result of the edits. It's half the size, It most likely only took around 10 hours. Quicker than the first, but the basic ideas were already in place. Most of my time these days is spent drawing and researching, then re-drawing. The inner wood holes are routed, not cut. There was plenty of room for routing. All the corian is cut. It's not gold pearl inset into deep corian. It's all cut pieces, some as small as 1mm ( the side knot centers). Thanks for looking! Craig

Hi Guys, I have been very very busy, but I just finished this one. Hope you like it. The idea is a Celtic wedding cross, with a wedding knot, set in stone corian. A wedding set in stone. It's more of a theme than at first site. By the time you get done counting all the little hole filling pieces of corian, inside and outside the loops, it's a 47 piece inlay in under 2.5 inches. Materials are stone corian, gold pearl, pink mussel shell. Techinically this is a work in progress so because the guitar isn't finished yet..... Please leave it in inlay!!!!! This is where people look for inlay! (I'm begging you guys!) More soon! Thanks for looking Craig Lavin