Martin Night Dive Edition Models Debut at NAMM
January 26, 2004
This collaborative effort between Inlay Artist William "Grit" Laskin, the technical inlay wizards of Pearl Works, and the craftspeople from the Martin Guitar Company has yielded a Brazilian rosewood Limited Edition (Orchestra Model or Dreadnought size options) incorporating the highest level of inlay art. Laskin's headstock and fingerboard inlay art focused around a "night-time diving for shell" motif is painstakingly executed by Pearl Works then assembled and lacquered by Martin. (Limited to no more than 100 instruments, combined total.)
The inlay, depicting shell divers above and below the water surface, a retrieval boat, a shell cutter and an observer, forms a visual allegory for the process of harvesting and processing shell into the small slabs that inlayers use. All but the divers are real people involved in the world of shell and inlay: Larry Sifel (of Pearl Works) works at the saw, Chuck Erikson (the Duke Of Pearl) retrieves the shell from the divers, and Grit Laskin peers over the edge of the uppermost boat, just an onlooker to the stages of the process that he, as the inlay artist, the end user, does not participate in.
"For more than three years," says Grit Laskin, "the folks at Pearl Works and I had been talking about collaborating. Pearl Works is a pioneer in computer-cut inlay; I've been busy pushing the envelope in my own corner of the inlay universe. The idea of blending my "one-off" design approach with their unique production abilities got us excited. Many late-night discussions about design themes led us, not surprisingly, to the theme of inlay itself, a fitting inauguration of this new collaboration."
Pearl Works worked for two years researching how to approach this project. "The challenge of making "Night Dive" in a production environment lead us to develop a completely new inlay technique that we have used on the D100 and beyond," says Larry Sifel, founder of Pearl Works.
- D Night Dive: $19990.00
- OM Night Dive: $19999.00
For more information, visit their web site at www.martinguitar.com. |
