Alembic Guitars Club

Alembic products => Factory to Customer => Topic started by: mica on March 15, 2003, 10:38:13 AM

Title: Sam's Custom Tribute with Ruthie Inlay
Post by: mica on March 15, 2003, 10:38:13 AM

My mom worked up the artwork for the inlay you were discussing with her. Here's what we've come up with:    
(http://club.alembic.com/Images/631/3802.jpg)
      This Ebony oval is to be flat and then inlaid on the surface of the guitar. It will appear like the lid of a compartment, but it will be permanently affixed.    Here you can get an idea of the scale of things:    
(http://club.alembic.com/Images/631/3803.jpg)
 

Title: Sam's Custom Tribute with Ruthie Inlay
Post by: mica on March 23, 2003, 11:28:31 PM

Here's the sketch you requested with more roses:
 
(http://club.alembic.com/Images/631/3982.jpg)

Title: Sam's Custom Tribute with Ruthie Inlay
Post by: Sam Salamon (smsdr) on March 24, 2003, 04:01:58 PM

added roses look excellent!
what would blue specks for eyes look like?

Title: Sam's Custom Tribute with Ruthie Inlay
Post by: mica on March 27, 2003, 05:57:51 PM

Here's the latest version with the parrot and the space in the eyes for the blue zircons:  
(http://club.alembic.com/Images/631/4091.jpg)
 
(http://club.alembic.com/Images/631/4092.jpg)

Title: Sam's Custom Tribute with Ruthie Inlay
Post by: smsdr on April 19, 2003, 07:09:32 PM

Please show me any update, with color, as well as Tribute body progress....
I plan to snail mail y'all two sets of conure photos (Peppy & Dusty)

Title: Sam's Custom Tribute with Ruthie Inlay
Post by: jake on April 30, 2003, 03:20:42 PM

mica, i alway's loved your mom's art.  Even if i can't afford to buy a guitar from you, is there any way i could buy one of her drawings?
 
Jake

Title: Sam's Custom Tribute with Ruthie Inlay
Post by: jake on April 30, 2003, 03:21:48 PM

mica, is there any way i could buy one of your mom's drawings?  they are totally awesome!
 
Jake

Title: Sam's Custom Tribute with Ruthie Inlay
Post by: mica on May 01, 2003, 09:03:43 AM

Hi Sam,
 
Here's some of the first pieces cut out, some still ahve the paper pattern attached:
 

(http://alembic.com/club/messages/631/4568.jpg)
 
 
Jake - My mom does sell her artwork. You can send her an email susan@alembic.com (mailto:susan@alembic.com) and she'll be happy to discuss it with you further.

Title: Sam's Custom Tribute with Ruthie Inlay
Post by: mica on May 06, 2003, 05:28:45 PM

James has been making good progress on the inlay. Here's your guitar parts in the carving department:  
(http://club.alembic.com/Images/631/4630.jpg)
 
(http://club.alembic.com/Images/631/4631.jpg)
  These will be joined together this week, Looking good!

Title: Sam's Custom Tribute with Ruthie Inlay
Post by: mica on May 08, 2003, 07:24:04 AM

More inlay pieces:
 
(http://club.alembic.com/Images/631/4643.jpg)
 
Mike made the Ebony oval already, and James thinks he will start inlaying the pieces next week.

Title: Sam's Custom Tribute with Ruthie Inlay
Post by: smsdr on May 08, 2003, 05:56:20 PM

looking great!
when do you put on the strings? (just kidding)
any mockup of the bird(s) yet? (did you receive hard copy snail mail pics?)
eyeball at 12th fret?

Title: Sam's Custom Tribute with Ruthie Inlay
Post by: mica on May 09, 2003, 05:27:50 PM

We got the pics of the pretty birds, thanks. The line art for the bird is up on March 27, I wasn't planning on doing a shell mock up of it since it's so similar to the previous version.  
 
Your guitar is in the spray department now:
 
(http://club.alembic.com/Images/631/4667.jpg)
 
Sorry I didn't get the photo before Bob prepped it for the next coat of finish (what you're looking at is the sanded surface). It practically has strings, heh heh.  
 
The eyeball inlay art will be ready for you towards the end of next week.

Title: Sam's Custom Tribute with Ruthie Inlay
Post by: smsdr on May 11, 2003, 03:44:56 PM

The conures don't have the vertical line at the base of the beak which you show in the line art.  If you could mockup with (fingerpaint?) a dab of watercolor to clue me in on the bird's appearance in carving that'd be appreciated...
What's ETA ballpark?
And how many guitars are gestating at once? looks like multiple births waiting for spray.  No trade secrets, just curiosity

Title: Sam's Custom Tribute with Ruthie Inlay
Post by: mica on May 16, 2003, 10:49:12 AM

Here's the revised area with Peppy:
(http://club.alembic.com/Images/631/4722.jpg)
 
We're thinking this project will be completed in mid-late June.  
 
There's about 90 instruments gestating here right now in various stages of development. Ain't ultrasound a wonderful thing?

Title: Sam's Custom Tribute with Ruthie Inlay
Post by: smsdr on May 16, 2003, 11:18:32 AM

Yes, hyper-mega-ultra-sound gives great vibes.
Pls make Peppy's beak black, utterly black; the white eye ring is perfect, & Peppy looks perky & chirpy!

Title: Sam's Custom Tribute with Ruthie Inlay
Post by: mica on May 21, 2003, 04:00:20 PM

The eye iinlay for the 12th fret will look somethin glike this:
 
(http://club.alembic.com/Images/631/4767.jpg)
 
Materials are golden mother of pearl for the background, white mother of pearl fo rthe sclera, paua for the iris, pink ivory for the tear duct area, ebony for the pupil with a small silver glint. The rest of the details will be done scrimshaw style - engraved then filled with a mixture of ebony dust and epoxy.  
 
The radial lines in the iris will be more exact (not really radial in this drawing) in the actual inlay, as well as the thickness of the lashes. Some lines look a little smudgy in this rendition, but it's just  a quickie to get the idea down.

Title: Sam's Custom Tribute with Ruthie Inlay
Post by: smsdr on May 23, 2003, 07:28:36 AM

1. Wow!
2. But...I'm thinking less is more.  More like the CBS oval eye ball logo.  A horizontal oval with the fretboard as the surround/background, and a green-blue iris with squiggly radial lines of varying intensity, and the glinty ebony pupil.  So there'd be no skin, eyelashes or tear duct tissue.
There could be some faint red or pink squiggly blood vessels towards the edges of the scleral oval.  So it'd be anatomically correct, but less of it.  I want the eyeball staring out from the guitar a bit more blatantly than the eyelids (adnexa) would allow.  Thanks.
3.  Again, wow!  If I needed a logo for my practice, we'd be there.

Title: Sam's Custom Tribute with Ruthie Inlay
Post by: mica on May 30, 2003, 09:20:04 AM

Is this more what you had in mind?
 
(http://club.alembic.com/Images/631/4824.jpg)
 

Title: Sam's Custom Tribute with Ruthie Inlay
Post by: smsdr on May 30, 2003, 11:48:05 AM

eye agrees
*pls make the iris predominantly green ,with less of the other elements
*could the horiz oval be pointy rather than rounded?
ie the sclera would end in a point at each end
*blood vessels could be finer, more threadlike if possible
looks quite pretty & just natural enough
thank you!

Title: Sam's Custom Tribute with Ruthie Inlay
Post by: guitargadfly on June 02, 2003, 11:55:07 AM

NICE job Susand and company, very gratifying to see my first sale of an Alembic at Olson Guitar Studios coming along. Sammy is gonna love it. The fun thing is , the parrot and the Ruthie look exactly like them! How'd ya do it?  
 Tom Olson

Title: Sam's Custom Tribute with Ruthie Inlay
Post by: smsdr on June 02, 2003, 04:09:01 PM

Tom, I disagree
we (Ruthie & I) eat to live, & live to play!  So there's lots of artistic license at play here...
Sam

Title: Sam's Custom Tribute with Ruthie Inlay
Post by: mica on June 20, 2003, 02:44:01 PM

Here's an in process shot of James doing the puzzle of Ruthie:
 
(http://club.alembic.com/Images/631/5210.jpg)