I reached another major step in the guqin construction project this past Sunday. While both of the instruments have been put together, I decided to sand and finish one of them first—partly to experiment and make sure it turns out well. Applying color was tricky, because it was easy to accidentally remove the color while sanding between coats. Also, making the pearl inlays for the harmonic nodes was harder than I expected. It took a lot of shaping to get them to be perfectly round. The final coating and sanding process was tedious. I lost count, but it must have been more than a dozen coats. Now, I have to let the finish cure for a few more days before final sanding up to 2000 grit.
This week, my goal is to start staining and finishing the other instrument. Now that I have a little more experience, I think it will proceed more easily. I started on it yesterday. This evening, I carved out the phoenix’s tongue at the head of the instrument.
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