Mackintosh Inspired Inlay

by Kathy Wingert

Originally published in American Lutherie #112, 2012



When I’m in the process of doing something, it always just feels like putting one foot in front of the other. Finding out afterward that there is curiosity about the inspiration and the process is always a pleasant surprise for me.

After being dragged every balky step of the way into harp guitar making by my first harp guitar client, I felt it was quite obvious that I would continue leaning on inspiration from the Scots couple of architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh and designer Margaret MacDonald Mackintosh. My client requested this peghead inlay from my daughter Jimmi Wingert, based on an abstract rose motif that occurs over and over in Mackintosh furniture and art. In the photos below, the iconic rose appears in a Mackintosh stained-glass window that also incorporates the leaf elements and curving lines that are reflected in the inlay on the arm of my recent harp guitar. The “muse” that Jimmi inlaid was drawn by artist Christa Percival.