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Flying!...
#9  2001
 

The rim is a Stewart McDonald thinned from the inside. With an internal resonator added.

The tone ring is an ff Bacon on top of the scallopped part of a WL tone ring from Stew Mac.

The theme of the decoration is about the every man's dream of flying. On the bottom of the neck you see Icarus falling after his wings have been melt by the sun, while on the head you can see a cosmonaut finally flying freely in space. On the back is a quiet angel (from heaven?) looking peacefuly to the wild flights of bats (from hell?). And on the back of the head, climbing and vanishing legs which could be the Soul flying to heaven...

Strangely, I was designing the inlays of this banjo, around the theme of Flying, when the accident of the Concorde took place in july 2000 in France. I knew and appreciated the captain of the Concorde's  flight who died on that day, we were flying in the same company and I had been his copilot some 10 years ago. On that sad day the theme of this banjo resonated differently and more deeply for me...