In the early 1980's we were treated to amazing pictures of the outer planets from the Voyager I and II spacecraft. In the mid 80's, I created a series of Voyager homage strumsticks that evoked the incredible close-up images of Jupiter we had so recently seen for the first time ever. I had created a process I call lacquer inlay; first I applied two colors of lacquer together on a smooth polyethylene surface, making a broad film that swirled the two colors without completely mixing them. The patterns strongly suggested the swirling clouds of Jupiter from the Voyager photos. After the lacquer dried, I carefully peeled off the film in a sheet. I then cut the film into various shapes. I made three all Maple G Strumsticks and sprayed them white. Then I over-sprayed them with clear lacquer, and applied the swirled color shapes while the clear was still wet. The shapes semi-dissolved and bonded with the wet clear coat, and I then sprayed more clear over them to complete the inlaying process. As the Strumsticks have aged, there has been a little yellowing, and a few spiderweb cracks in the thick lacquer coat, but they are quite beautiful tribute to the Voyagers' amazing extension of human vision. One of a kind.
