Bob, glad you like it--thanks.
Michael, I appreciate the kind word, and I'll see if "post haste" can kick in.
But first a few words about inspiration:
To me it is an interesting subject--what inspires an artist, or craftsman, or yes even a luthier.
Perhaps a walk in the woods:
Which everyone knows what that sight inspired:
Or maybe a walk on the beach:
Which sight was inspiring to at least one luthier:
For others, it was a chance look
up:
We saw this ceiling on a trip to the UK a couple years back. On Trevor's recommendation we traveled west, which course took us through Winchester. If you hike down the river southward, you'll come to the Hospital of St. Cross. It is the first charitable institution in Britain. There you'll find and old (Norman...I believe) church, and this is one of the vaulted ceilings. Not content with an architectural masterpiece, they felt this needed further decoration. Someone--bless him--painted an attractive pattern even on the ribs. That caught my eye, and I wondered if that could work as a purfling pattern?
So to the sketch pad we went:
You can see that my doodling was itself inspiring to Ryan's daughter, who made her own contribution. Anyway, the rib pattern was broken into its parts, and then arranged into a repeating pattern something like this:
And
that ^ will be the design scheme for this little parlor.
Thanks for following along,
Steve