I wanted to share this here... kind of off topic but it's specific to this forum and I figure likeminded woodworking fiends would appreciate. I started building basses (for me - not professionally, but I've built a few for $$) about 5 years ago. My first bass was playable: part decent, part learning disaster. Swamp ash body, solid wenge neck (actually built two necks - i totally screwed up the first one - in hindsight, not that bad, but I didn't know how to fix at the time), birdseye maple fingerboard. There's a lot of sentimental attachment though it's not really useful. Fast forward 5 years and I'm getting married pretty soon. After much deliberation over wedding rings (I'm one of those few guys that actually enjoys taking part in all of the wedding planning) I finally got fed up with local selection and told the FI to suprise me and pick one out. She's always been supportive of my hobbies and endeavors (luthiery, woodwoorking) and my music in general, but I was floored when I got the ring. She found a local jeweler that specializes in custom and one-off work and proceeded to design something. The ring is all platinum and inlayed with strips of wenge (leftover from that first neck) forming two bands of wenge striping around the outside. The wenge itself is protected with (funny enough) epoxy. I've got that unused neck mounted (don't laugh - looks great except for the toolarge tuner holes (didn't know how to fix it at the time)) in my office as a sort of goofy reminder about about not quitting (I was so pissed and frustrated at the time, very close to giving up and just trashing it all), blah blah etc etc. I didn't even notice it had left. I don't have any pics of the ring yet (not until after the wedding), but I do have pics of the wenge neck that she had used. Really striking grain patterns and it really came through nicely on the ring. Anyway, just wanted to share. I had no idea that she took that amount of interest in what I did. She's supportive, but her eyes do glaze over pretty quickly if I talk shop for anymore than 30 seconds at a time ;-)
You are blessed to have her. I've got one like that too. As far as "taking an interest" - It became completely apparent to me that she was the woman for me when she was crawling under my racecar with me, holding up my exhaust with long, manicured nails, so that I could weld it back in place. Yep, that did it for me.
ahh, the thoughts of a lost love holding pieces of wood in line while I clamp them up nearly brigns a tear to my eye.
Well done. Could be a keeper. My wife will help with design and wood color selection but I haven't asked her to help clamp or anything like that. Very cool......t
Awesome guys! Sounds like the time my wife cut her hand open on the tires from my old 280ZX that I'd done one too many burnouts in and let the steel belts show .