Spent the last couple of days creating rosettes for these ukuleles.  I’ve decided to go with pau abalone for the Concert and white Mother-of-Pearl (MOP) for the Baritone.  The most time-consuming aspect is routing out a channel of the proper width to support the inlay rosette including a series of black/white purfling.  Given the purfling is measured in 1/100’s of an inch, accuracy is critical to avoid gaps.

In order to achieve a complete ring (many rosettes have a gap at the top which is then covered by the fretboard), I had to hand cut blank shell into an arc to “fill the gap”.  That was “fun”.  After routing, purfling and the shell are placed into into the channel in a pattern as desired.  With Pau Abalone, I prefer having the white purfling along its edge while with white MOP, I prefer a black edge.  Of course, the purfling had to be cut to exact lengths to also avoid gaps.

Once everything is installed, thin CA glue sets it all in place.  A thick coat of thick CA goes along the surface.  This acts as a nice barrier between the shell and the surface of the soundboard.