When we were married, my husband and luthier, Ken Miller wanted me to not only be his life partner but also share in a partnership of building beautiful fretted instruments. Although Ken is very proficient at cutting inlay, it is a completely different operation from actually constructing a guitar. He would have to stop what he was doing in the construction process and shift gears to do the inlay. He was willing to teach me and I was willing to learn so he started me out cutting diamonds for Acousteel (Ken Miller's original take on the Dobro®/National/Weissenborn resophonic guitar) fingerboards. That allowed me to learn the feel of the saw cutting through shell, accurately following the lines on the paper glued to the shell, and filing the pieces so that the edges were smooth.

The primary material we use for inlay is shell, including mother of pearl, abalone and green snail. We order shell in precut slabs at a thickness of about .040 inches. In addition to shell we also use wood, turquoise, ivory, and wire made of silver, gold or copper.

The basic tools needed are a jeweler's saw with .0095-inch blades, a set of small diamond files, super glue, sandpaper, a sharp knife, a chisel, a Dremel router (optional), and a light table. A "bird’s beak" or support board with a v-shaped slot is attached to the work bench and becomes the support for the shell while it is being cut. The shell pieces are wet sanded before cutting to remove saw marks and scratches. After the pieces are cut and filed they are glued together with super glue which has an almost instantaneous bond so take care not to glue your finger to the shell or any other object! Acetone will dissolve the glue but it is also toxic and easily absorbed through the skin and lungs. Keep a paper towel handy to wipe away excess glue from the shell. Super glues are cyanide based and therefore toxic, so use of ventilation or fans is essential.

Once the inlay is glued together, it is fitted into the wood of the instrument with knives and chisels. If there is a large area to be excavated we may use a Dremel router setup and then do the finish fit with a knife. Once everything is ready, we typically glue the inlay into the wood with tinted epoxy. For more in depth information on inlay techniques, The Art of Inlay by Larry Robinson and Working with Mother-of-Pearl by J.E. Patterson are excellent resources.

When cutting the shell, fine particles can be seen floating up from the saw. Wood also creates dust and some people have allergic reactions to certain types of wood. It is necessary to use a vacuum system or respirator to protect yourself from these particles and potential lung disease. To prevent cuts it is important to hold the shell in such a way that your fingers are not in front of the saw! Acetone and many glues are highly flammable so avoid sparks or open flames when using these materials.

With practice I learned that different types of shell have different density and textures which can make it easier or more difficult to cut, depending on its characteristics. When cutting wood the saw tends to want to follow the grain and it is sometimes difficult to get nicely curved edges. The blade on the jeweler's saw loosens with use and it is more likely to break if it is not tightened frequently. A light, smooth steady stroke with the saw is the key to accurate cutting and keeping the stress on the blade to a minimum. Pushing the blade too hard and too fast decreases accuracy and increases the chances of breaking the blade. I find that tapping my foot helps me keep the right pace, much like keeping time in a jam session.

I learned to place a sheet on the floor under the area where I cut to catch anything I drop. Otherwise, a piece which looked big enough when I was totally focused on it became a mere spec on the floor as it bounced into oblivion, never to be seen again. Using a light table to file and fit pieces works much better for me than using the naked eye or a magnifying glass.

In the beginning I worked strictly from a template which I made by taking card stock with a hole cut in it in the shape of the piece I wanted to cut. I sorted through the shell, holding the template over different pieces until I found a piece of shell with a pattern which would compliment the inlay design. I then traced the design onto the shell using the template and cut along the pencil marks. Eventually, thanks to a brief workshop with David Nichols, I realized it was much easier to cut inlay by gluing a copy of the design directly onto the shell.

I still use the template to find a pattern which complements the inlay design. I can literally spend hours going through shell until I find a piece that has just the right pattern to enhance the design. Sometimes this works beautifully and other times the pattern will disappear in the final sanding. It is still a nice inlay but not exactly what I envisioned when I was sorting through all that abalone. I recently discovered from reading an article on inlay by Judy Threet, whose inlay work and artistry I greatly admire, that she also searches for the right pattern in the shell to complement her inlays.

A good example of using patterns in the shell to enhance the inlay design can be found in the third inlay project I cut. The design, an egret in flight, was for a banjo peghead. At the time we had a good supply of curly mother of pearl. I used the templates to line up the curls so that they looked like feathers on the wingtips and we felt it turned out quite nice; Ken, however, was appalled when he realized I had used up almost all of that curly pearl, taking the parts I needed right out of the middle of the shell. It was not an economical use of pearl but it was worth it for the effect. A more recent example of using patterns in shell to compliment a design is our Snow Capped inlay. The mother of pearl pieces are carefully chosen and assembled to give a three dimensional effect to mountain ridges and valleys. If you look closely at the moon rising over the mountains, you can see "the Man in the Moon."

My first project of cutting diamond shapes for Acousteel guitars was pretty boring and I quickly progressed to cutting more complicated designs. Throughout my early experiences with cutting inlay I frequently found myself in inescapable situations. It was great working with Ken because whenever I'd get stuck he would come over and say, "Try this...," and from there I would usually be able to figure it out. Each of our guitars has it's own individual inlay and each guitar has a name that reflects the inlay. We are constantly looking for new inlay ideas. How the inlay fits together needs to be taken into account in the design process so that the pieces fit together neatly when it is cut. Ken feels inlay design should be very simple, like a cartoon, so that the viewer's mind fills in the details. This is not always as easy as it sounds. I think a good example of simplicity which works is my Hummingbird design. It has a total of five pieces. The body is cut from green abalone heart and gives the impression of tiny feathers. Initially there was red color in the piece for the throat but the color vanished in the final sanding.

We wanted to do something special for a close friend of ours who is a musician. He and his wife are really into angels so we decided to make an angel inlay for him to put on one of his instruments. I began working on a design. My first thought was to do a very stylized angel because it would be easier to cut and fit together. I kept drawing and re-drawing stylized angels but none of them were what I was looking for. Finally I put the project down for a while.Then one afternoon I picked up a pencil and a piece of paper and within a few minutes I had the design that we used. It was a fairly complicated design in terms of cutting and fitting inlay, with a total of 20 pieces.

The wonderful thing about this project was that Ken never commented on the complexity of the design. If he had pointed that out, I might have thought it was beyond my skill and not tried to do it. Each time I cut a more complicated design, I wouldn't realize how difficult it was until I was in the middle of it. By then it was too late to stop and I would have to figure out how to make it work. The angel has a gown of mother of pearl with tiny paua abalone trim for contrast. Her hair is made out of gold pearl. Her face and hands are made from piano key ivory. I had drawn one hand overlapping the gown which proved a challenge to cut and fit.

Last year Ken built his 97th guitar and we decided to make it a commemorative of The Wreck of the Old 97. The back & sides of the guitar are black Brazilian rosewood with just a couple of thin orange streaks. We decided to keep the guitar very plain or "Zen" to my way of thinking, with no inlay on the fingerboard. The peghead inlay is of a "ghost train" of black mother of pearl. I wanted to simulate the look of moonlight on steel with just the highlights to give the impression of a train. I studied many pictures of old locomotives before coming up with the final design.

The kudzu inlay is my version of the tree of life design. I happen to love kudzu and wanted to use it in an inlay. The kudzu inlay drapes down the peghead and curls around the fingerboard at the nut. It wraps around from the other side with a leaf at the 12th fret and a small lizard peeking out from under the leaf adds a whimsical touch. I was able to find one piece of green abalone heart which had a pattern that gave the appearance of the lizard's eye. On the back of the guitar at the heel cap, a small tentacle of kudzu vine is wrapping around the guitar. This inlay is made from paua abalone which is known for its beautiful shades of gold, blue and green. This design turned out to be much more work than I expected just because of the sheer number of pieces to be cut and fitted. By the time I finished this inlay I had gained a new level of proficiency.

The Tree Frog inlay is probably my all-time favorite. Although it is not simple, the pieces fit together beautifully, without a lot of filing, perhaps a sign that skill improves with practice. The back of the frog is made of green abalone heart and the undersides are green snail. The eyes are made of red coral. The bamboo shoot is koa and the leaves are paua. The design is whimsical and nicely balanced on the peghead.

We only build 15 to 20 guitars a year and we strive to make each one a work of art as well as a joy to play and hear. The beauty of custom guitars is that there are a limitless number of combinations and options in size, wood and inlays. The thing we most enjoy is working with a customer to create his or her dream guitar. A good example of this synergy is the Musical Lady whose owner had a clear idea in mind of what he wanted for the inlay design. He was able to provide several photos to work from. It took several drawings and telephone calls before we achieved the design he wanted.

The finished inlay is of an "avant-garde" woman with long flowing tresses of koa and a red abalone headband in her hair. Her face and neck are made of ivory. Flowing gracefully from her hair and down the fingerboard are musical notes of green snail and silver wire which culminate at the 12th fret with the first notes of Ye Banks and Braes. This was the customer's vision which we were able to create for a one-of-a-kind, personalized guitar.

The beauty of designing and cutting a unique inlay for each custom guitar is that it is always a challenge to create something new and fresh- something that will hopefully be pleasing to the eye and the senses, and ultimately something which is uniquely personal for the person who commissioned the instrument.