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Hi world. This is Oola. She and I have spent a frozen overnight in a rest stop east of Los Angeles. This is our trip to Texas.

We got a late start for many reasons including the need to turn in grades, (I teach Web Design at Berkeley City College), finish the revamp of the Multimedia Arts Department website, and also due to the fact that I had promised my guitar-maker sweety to inlay pickguard and tail piece for his newest.

Well, the grades got done. Final projects were very, very good. Here are some examples of work my students have done.

The revamp got to publishing stage at the llth hour with much high-fiving and self congratulations. But when I went back to get you the URL, I found a couple of mistakes. Sooo, that is for a later date.

Finally, the inlay. How do you inlay a guitar?

First you think about it but not so long as I did. Then you draw (or adapt) a design. Then you cut out the tiny pieces of mother of pearl.

Up and down, up and down, push the line, march in place to turn a corner. The dark green cloth is to catch the little mothers that try to get away. The jacket is because it is winter and there is no heating in my studio.

Then you route out the reciprocal holes in the ebony. This is the tricky part because — you guessed it — Mother of Pearl is cranky and doesn’t bend. Make everything fit and epoxy it all together. Sand it. (I’ll let my sweety do that while I am gone.)

Finished, Oola and I get on the road. She has never seen a cactus that isn’t in a pot.

If you want to see Oola in the series where she tries on the personas of different women and women artists throughout Western Art History, check out:

http://www.jandove.com

More to come on the adventures and reflections of an artist.

Jan