Ukelele gourd build pics

Here are some random build pics of my first ukelele gourd. as you can see i slit the gourd lengthwise and cleaned it out with a curved scraper. the i hand shaped a maple spine that runs the length of the instrument and glues to the inside curve of the neck for support but dropped the spine down in the bowl area as to not interfere with the soundboard movement. the spine runs all the way to the back and glues to the kerfing that i made to run around the inside rim of the bowl for structural support. Also you will notice that I hand carved the headstock from some scrap wood that i laminated together (maple and black walnut) and drilled and tapered some holes for the violin pegs. The fretboard is ebony, the soundboard is cedar and has vee shaped bracing that cross directly under the bridge. There is much work still to be done but I have hit a few snags with regards to shop space. I am currently looking for a studio with which to make more of these. This is only the first one of hopefully many more. This year I grew around 25 more but after using natural curing methods (meaning I dried them outside in all conditions to cause the waterproof skin to rot off exposing the beautiful tan underlayer) a few of them fell victim to the extremes of drying outside and i probably have about 20 usable gourds left. you can see them in a couple of the pics hanging on my deck. You'll notice the nasty black mold on them, this is a good thing. this mold helps remove the waterproof skin that covers the gourd and does not penetrate the visible tan hurd that is underneath. I'll post more pics when i finish. It might be a while.