Hand painted mandolins on the Cafe?

[Isaac Casas]

Hello everyone,

I've been seeing from time to time some A style hand painted mandolins here on the Cafe and also on Facebook that are for sale. There are nicely coloured, I think decorative mandos. I want to get a gift for a friend that's not a player but I think would appreciate the aesthetic component, but I don't seem to be able to find them.

Does anyone remember this mandos? Anyone has any info about who's making them?

Thanks so much!

Isaac

[Rob Boyett]

Are you thinking of the ones that have been done in vinyl? If so, its:

https://www.christiziebarth.com/

[FLATROCK HILL]

I see this one from time to time but don't know if it's for sale.

http://www.mandolinarchive.com/gibson/serial/71055

Not an 'a' style so I guess it can't be the one!

[Isaac Casas]

Are you thinking of the ones that have been done in vinyl? If so, its:

https://www.christiziebarth.com/

Yes! It's vinyl, this must be why I wasn't finding them on the internet!

Thank you so much!!

Isaac

[tjmangum]

The Christi Ziebarth art works are very cool!
Although I'm confused as to if the only 3 dimensional part is the fretboard? Is there an actual body there?

[Simon DS]

[JeffD]

Depending on what you want, it may be an advantage to get someone to artist up your mandolin.

I had, played, and loved the Weber Aspen II, for many years, when I developed a fascination for cowboy art on guitars. I contacted Weber with a design I found but was informed that the design was probably owned and it would be a costly hassle to get permission for them to put it on my mandolin.

I went to a local artist I knew and we talked and talked and he developed custom art for my mandolin, in the cowboy guitar style. And he did the "painting". Since then the mandolin has become recognized and well known.


OK it may not be your style or what anyone wants for that matter. But I love it, first of all, and second and more to the point, in terms of flexibility, matching the exact right mandolin and the exact right artwork, it may be more effective to get someone to paint yer mandolin.

[Tavy]

Note that those Vinyl covered instruments are not playable - if you read the description they were a rejected batch that all had neck issues - the vinyl would kill the sound anyway of course.... just saying!

Jeff's example of a hand-painted top is in a tradition that goes back a long long way, and doesn't mess up the instrument if done well.

[Charles E.]

Jeff, I love the cactus holding its "ears", classic.

[Richard500]

Currently on SGW, this object,
I’ve been tempted a few times, especially banjos from the roaring twenties that accumulated period artwork, endorsements, poems. A banjo head is almost irresistible for ink and paint.
The pictured object, sort of a cultural artifact of the not-roaring, but sometimes drugged sixties, is pretty amateurish, but the artwork unfortunately wouldn’t hardly reduce the sound…

[JeffD]

My avatar is a Big Muddy M-11. Lots of empty space on the top. I am considering getting it all arted up as well. He has a really creative idea for an extreme perspective shot from below of an airplane dropping a bunch of mandolins. Think something like comic book art and the tense scene when the bombs are released from the plane.

I really like visually creative people. They can draw anything at all, and the hard part is deciding the something, out of all that anything, to portray.

My artist friend also plays banjo, fiddle, mandolin, bones, and jaw harp, BTW.

[Sue Rieter]

That's a super creative idea. I love it!!

[Caleb]

I do this with acoustic guitars, but the really hard part (understatement) is finding guitars for free (or almost free) to turn into art pieces. Here are a couple that I've done that turned out pretty well.

The Ibanez had the bridge taken off and glued back on haphazardly, making it unplayable but a great piece for my purposes. I got it for $10. The Silvertone was stored in an attic for decades, taken out and placed on the curb for trash, and rescued by some lady that ended up giving it to me for free. I cleaned it up, gave it some tattoos, and sold it to a guy that set it up (even installed electronics) and plays it all the time. What a story that old guitar has to tell!

This warbly checkerboard/tattoo design is something I came up with years ago and works pretty well for instruments. I've got an old 12-string junker that I'm going to work on next. I'm thinking of striping it out like EVH's Frankenstein.

My idea was to get a bunch of old guitars that no one is playing, and make them art pieces for man-caves and music rooms/studios. I just had no idea how hard it would be to find the instruments.