Introduction - Crazy Carvin' Cris

[Cris Rogers]

Hi there gents and ladies - I wanted to say hello and introduce myself. Crazy Cris, CohibaCris, CarvinCris - I have multiple interest psychosis.

Located in north central North Carolina, I'm a middle age (shudder) wood carving fool that has a crazy dream of etching art into musical instruments and presenting a mashup in the form of an electric guitar (many of them actually)... When I say carved, I'm referring to removing unneeded chunks of wood to expose the art desired (up to 1.25" deep and anywhere hardware isn't occupying that space).

My interest is making fully functional instruments for professional musicians - I'll do wall-art pieces but they will play and work as if they could come off the wall (part refinement excluded - GoldenAge pups versus custom SD pups, for example). I've been skulking in my shop for a while and just gotten to the level of skill where I feel comfortable jumping into the forums and interacting - I know I shoulda shown up sooner but to each their own eh?
A few pics to show my work...

[Art Davila]

Very nice work love that tele

[Steve Senseney]

Nice work.

How do you know when you are finished?

[Cris Rogers]

It's a fantastic question Steve - an old woodcarving joke is "Finished is when you're sick of looking at it".
In the case of the Kraken - that guitar could have still been in the white with me dorking on the details. For that one, when the major elements were clear enough to be detailed under acrylic paint, I started the finish sanding on the front of the guitar. One change I'll make going forward (not from this one) is building the back and sides out completely in the white (to 200 sanded & sealed) before starting on the front carving. For this rig that wasn't possible because I didn't know how deep I'd need to plunge on the Kraken itself to get the right detail.

A long winded answer - Cheers!

[Ian Chester]

Hey Chris, have a look at the guitar builder Jeffrey Jones, you may find inspiration from him. Great work, love it!!

[Cris Rogers]

Ian, it is ironic that you mention that - Jeffrey is a HUGE influence and his stylzed smoothed approach is a style I love (it's just not my style) and I've replicated a variation of the mermaid guitar called Galatea (mahogany; carved headstock, etc) and his simplicity in design creates a powerful instrument IMHO. There are just a few folks carving guitars - Between Jeffrey, Ed Roman (RIP) & his stuff among others are some of the only simulades that a budding carving git maker have to lean on...

[James Tonguet]

very nice work

[Markku Nyytäjä]

When do you sleep?

[Cris Rogers]

When do you sleep?

Plenty! '-) I just carve really fast (lol)