sometimes wood is just too earnest

I always assumed that when it came time to make fret markers that they would be made from a suitable, beautiful timber, but when push came to shove, I wanted something lighter. To remind me to lighten-up, sometimes. Wood has so much ego...it pushes forward and can be too forthcoming with sentiments like- 'I am important and worthy', or 'I am from recycled meaningful bits of his collection', or  'I'm so much more sensible than some flashy modern thing'. And most of the time it is right to say all those things. So this is about context.

I needed to mark certain fret positions, and it seemed fun to make them sparkly. Goodness, what have I come to?

 But first, the truss rod found it's place today. That little channel finally got filled. The adjustment is accessed from a hole in the top brace, through the sound hole.

The fingerboard became convex and ready for some inlay. First, some pilot holes were drilled for the abalone...

Then the holes were enlarged to the right shape....

Then the bits were glued in, and are not quite finished yet in these pics because I've already done way too much today.

At this point they seem a bit disjointed, but the frets make sense of all that....later.