Days 53 and 54 – Saturday, September 18 and Sunday, September 19: MOTHER OF ...

Goals: Stain the damn lid; work on the inlay.

Music: Eldar’s “Live at the Blue Note”; Bill Evans’ “Complete Village Vanguard Recordings 1961” (all three discs); Bill Evans’ “Portrait in Jazz”; Art Farmer’s “Portrait of Art Farmer” and “Blame It on My Youth”.

This was to be an unexciting entry, anyway, so it is about a week late. My schedule was upset by having to serve on a U.S. District Court jury last week to convict a guy who trafficked in 15-year old prostitutes who were illegal aliens to boot. (Like I said: we convicted.)

Enough about that.

I’m one coat on one side of the lid from being finished with it. When I’m finished with that, I’ll be finished with staining except for any touch-ups I have to do on the inside after I install everything. I’m looking forward to that.

The mother-of-pearl inlay work is no fun. No fun at all. It is very tedious, very time consuming, very slow, very precise, and dirty work. I’ve inhaled so much old wood and varnish I’ve developed a dry hack that is pretty serious. To make matters worse, the mother-of-pearl that I bought looks new, while the MOP on my piano does not. I’m not sure how to spruce up the antique inlay or how to tone down the modern inlay. I’m back to thinking about scrapping the inlay board all together and installing something else. Or, I may go against Mrs. S’s suggestion and just go ahead and let the modern and ancient MOP mix on that board, for better or worse.

I just want to be done.

Next session will be completing the harp and completing the lid.