Completed December 2020
The purfling is the border of black and white lines around the perimeter of the violin top and back. It is made of thin wooden strips laminated together and inlayed just one to two millimeters into the wood. Purfling is both decorative and functional, as it helps prevent cracks from moving through the edge to the center of the violin. Examine the left lower corner of Excalibur and see how I carved right through the thin purfling, where I hadn’t inlaid it deep enough. Live and learn!