Part 2 shows the decorating we've done so far, and by we, I mean ME. 

I've used a woodburner so far. The decor is a little thing, so I'm considering going over what I've already done with with a thicker tip. Downfall to that is that I may lose some of the intricacies of it all.

I don't really like the way it looks now, and I think thats because the darkness of the burn and the lightness of the wood is too much contrast for me. Hopefully when the stain is put on the burns will look a bit better.

I freehanded all of it, but I did have to look at the picture of the globe to get the earth down. I'm not that good.

In this second picture, you may be able to see the outline of something around the moon, and further up. It's a pregnant woman. For some reason I'd like to incorporate a that into it somehow, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to.

Theres nothing me and the boyfriend like more than playing with world instruments. By world instruments I mean something besides your standard 5-piece American band. We regularly check this stuff out. Check out literally, actually, the story behind this post started with a trip to the library. There I went to the music section, found some books on making musical instruments, and brought them home. These type of things excite him. 

Anyways, he decided to make something from the book, called a Rumba Box. With some research I've discovered that this isn't a common name for it, and the closest instrument I've found is the Mbira, on Wikipedia.  

Now that hes halfway done with it, I took some pictures of our progress.

The basic idea, I've found is a thumb piano. This is a big bass version of that. It requires wood, music wire, a bridge, and some patience.

The crescent moon you see is the necessary sound hole. The metal strips in the middle are the two layer bridge, similiar to a piano with flats and sharps.

The next steps are to stain it, decorate it, and get the music wire on it and tuned. We'll keep you posted. We're quite excited. I don't think my boyfriend has thought about it WHERE we're going to put it, though…..