[Jim]

My suggestion would be to go with a functional rather than purely decorative binding and then get your zing with a good purfling. Wood bindings are nice to look at but they are nearly useless in function. Binding is supposed to protect your edges from bumps and for that you need celluloid - not plastic but real celluloid bindings. It will be a bit more expensive than just wood bindings but it will really protect your guitar's edges from bumps. When celluloid binding is bumped hard it absorbs the shock and rebounds to its orginal shape. When wood binding is bumped it gets crushed and stays crushed and you have a permanent ding in it. If it gets bumped really hard it may not even fully protect the edge.

My two favorite celluloid bindings are tortoise shell and ivoroid.

Then, for your eye candy you can use pretty much any material that you like as the purfling. My favorite is Green Heart Abalone but it is really pricey and many people go with regular Green Abalone instead. Some who do not care for such nice purfling go with a marquetry wood purfling - the most common and traditional is herringbone but then your guitar looks like so many others. You can also get other marquetry designs however, and some of them are really beautiful.