Amy Hopkins and the amazing technicolored snakefiddle: a photo-essay on designing and inlaying very large and complex inlays into a violin back, top, fingerboard and tailpiece [Pictures]

Amy Hopkins - 04:56am Oct 16, 2003
MIMForum Staff and Poet Laureate

This is a demonstration of a fancy inlay for a customer with all its problems aired out in public (so that hopefully it is a good learning experience). In some cases, depending on the customers artistic ability, you have a more completed drawing to work from, in this case, the fellow knew what he wanted but there was no more than a rough sketch to go from. So, the first step is research, a rattlesnake on the front and a Gila monster on the back. The internet yeilded some good pictures so I started there.

From the pictures from the Internet and the Library (kids books on reptiles) I came up with two rough drawing which I worked on til they were usable inlay drawings-the sections of different colors seperated, nice sharp lines. I use a light table for this, ending up with six or seven drawings, each a little clearer than the last.

and the snake. At this point, ALWAYS double check with the customer to see if he approves. In this case, he wanted the tail a bit thicker on the Gila monster and a few other small changes which I made. He had given me the colors, choosing recon stone and ablaone for the snake, recon and black pearl for the Gila.

The next part, cutting, is standard to a flat inlay, cut the material, and assemble on a flat surface. Mark did about all the cutting, the recon is brittle and tends to break easily. Some of it can also dull the blades very fast. This was the first job that we used a lot of recon.

and the Gila

Now, here comes the fun part. I didn't want to try to assemble the inlay on the fiddle itself, so I built a box and made a plaster cast-This went much easier than I expected, I'd done a few plaster casts for archtop guitar repairs but this was much nicer being smaller than a big body jazz guitar by a long shot! First, I built a box that broke down easily, lined it with tin foil and poured Plaster of Paris in. I covered that with Saran Wrap, smoothed it and gently pressed the fiddle in.

After that set (and not too long, I could tell early on that I had underestimated this job by a LOT) I poured plaster into that to make a positive cast.

I did the same with the back and now had two casts to assemble the inlay on.

Next, assembling the inlay and here is where problems started to occur. The pieces that fit so beautifully on a flat surface lost that beauty on the curve, every piece had to be refiled and refit!

Note to self: If I EVER get another job like this, do the FIRST fitting on the curved surface!!

Mark (our apprentice, young Obi Wan according to Ellie) was a huge part of this, all the cutting and a good bit of the fitting. Some of the bigger pieces of recon needed to be bent for the curves, heating them with the heat lamp and gently pushing them into the curve worked well, just a little too much pushing or too little heat and SNAP! (We cussed a lot during this job, I believe that Mark learned, if not new words, at least new arrangements of the words)

The pieces were assembled with the help of tiny dots of CA, when the Gila monster was together, it was a large, albeit fragile piece on the curve of the back. I did the Gila first, assuming (correctly) that the maple back would be easier to inlay.

Note to self: Mistake number two- this should have been put together in smaller sections, it is VERY TOUGH to fit one huge piece well!

Next the MONSTER-its permanent nickname at this point! was laid out onto the back of the fiddle, carefully lined up with the center, we stood back and looked, shifted, looked again, shifted it a little again, and shop consensus, pronounced it right.

A nice sharp number two pencil and a neat drawing line.

The standard plexi dremel base that I use would not work for this so I made one up that would help with routing on the curve.

And started to rout....and rout...and rout. There is a huge sound difference between routing on a solid fingerboard and routing on a fiddle body. It was LOUD!! We all ended up with earphones.

Now, here is the glued in MONSTER but I have to say, it was a lot of hours between routing and gluing and I ended up breaking the big fellow into smaller components. A lot of futzy fitting to get it to drop into the cavity well. I used an epoxy glue with lamp black for coloring, something that I have not had a problem with in the past but I have not done that much inlay on light colored wood. When I had, I hadn't liked the look of my edges, David Nichols had suggested that I darken the epoxy more, it makes a sort of "frame" around the picture. This works well for the most part but has some problems we'll see a bit later.

Now the snake: I learned enough from the MONSTER to know to assemble the snake in smaller lots.

Laid out on the spruce.

And neat lines drawn.

Now the spruce has hard soft grain lines, so before I routed, I cut the line with a sharp exacto blade.

And cut cross grain lines with the dremel, clearing with a sharp chisel, this helped the routing go a bit smoother.

Glued in, so far so good.

I sanded with a block, used a file where I could. A big problem with recon is that you have to leave it a bit thick or it breaks very easily. You HAVE to use a block on the spruce as it is much softer than the inlay and it is easy to cause ups and downs on the fiddle. I took it up to 220 .

The fingerboard and tailpiece were cut out of the same pattern, just more curved and harder to fit.

And the MONSTER.

There were some real problems with the inlay on the top, that in hindsight could have been corrected early. Really, I should have sealed the edges of the spruce cavity, perhaps with lacquer or shellac, before the inlay and colored epoxy went in. There was some bleeding of the color into the soft spruce. It is hard to tell if the bleeding is from the colored epoxy or from the sanding dust from the colored recon. When I cleaned it, I wiped it with naptha (a mild solvent) and I believe that I might have driven some of the color of the sanding dust into the spruce grain. Some of this can be corrected with bleaching the wood, hopefully the finish on the spruce will be dark enough to cover the rest and it is mostly under the fingerboard and tailpiece.

Note to self: ALWAYS seal and protect spruce when doing ANYTHING to it (besides the staining, you wouldn't believe how many little dings and dents I had to sand out, just from the handling and working on the fiddle!)

So, there it is, an interesting job with new challenges and a lot of head scratching.

Too much, Amy!! That is some *fine* work!

It is a little "too much" perhaps, but I believe that this fellow plays cajun music and a flashy fiddle would be a great stage show. As for tone (I know you guys are going to bring up how all this rock will affect the tone) I believe that he will be mostly plugged in.

Amy, when you lay the pieces out to trace around them, do you temporarily stick them down? Or do you just hold them in place while you trace around them? If you do stick them down, what do you use to do it, so they come back up easily?

Hey David, Sometimes, if they are pretty stable, you can hold them steady with your finger or the eraser of a pencil while you trace. Sometimes tho, I use a tiny drop of airplane cement (Duco is what I use) and let it set just a bit. If you don't let it sit too long, you can just trace around it then gently flip the section off with no damage.

Amy

What a great job of inlaying. I know the fellow you did it for. He called and told me about it then emailed your (or should I say you'll's) work to me.

DOUG KERSHAW
The Ragin Cajun

Thanks! It is heading off to Kansas today for a finish with a fellow named Mike Cross-he is 74 and a fascinating person. It should get a nice honey colored finish and I hope I'll get a good picture of it when done. I will breath a big sigh of relief when it is gone.

You know, normally I can find something to say about people's work here, but this has left me (almost) speachless. Dumbfounded. I really wish I were that creative and skilled. Congrats on a truly unique and wonderful piece of art...

It is not as difficult as everyone thinks at first. I am not that artistic, most of this is just copying (a LOT of tracing) of photos and drawings from books or the web. This particular inlay had roadblocks because of the curve of the instrument but really, basic inlay takes a good eye (or a good set of reading glasses!) and a steady hand, and the rest is just a series of steps like anything else. It is not black magic and anyone can do it given a bit of time and practice.

Amy first off, I must say that is fabulous work. I love your work it is very tight and you are very thorough, everything I strive for. I was just wondering what are your thoughts on the integrity of the structure of the fiddle after you inlayed it? Because I wanted to inlay on the body before but was worried that the instruments box might fail from stress. Or was the fiddle built to compensate for the large inlay? Thanks once again awesome, awesome work!-tom

The fiddle was a hair heavy but I still inlaid about .045 into it. I used a good epoxy for the inset, so in theory they should be quite strong but how this lasts over time, well, time will tell. I tell you though, after I routed, the spruce that was left on the upper bouts was awful thin, and looking into the endpin hole in a bright light was sort of weird.