Healdsburg Guitar Festival

Over the weekend of August 9-11, I was in Santa Rosa, California. I set up shop at the "Healdsburg Guitar Festival", a biennial show which attracts guitar builders (luthiers)  from around the world to display their handcrafted instruments. Two exhibit halls were filled with amazing craftsmanship in wood. The wide corridors surrounding the halls were reserved for vendors of guitar related products. My kind neighbor, Tim of Busker Bags, took these photos of me in my booth. It was a very busy weekend.

This exquisite guitar was the show stealer as far as I was concerned. It was built by Todd Lunneborg, inlayed by Larry Robinson and painted by Wendy Ortiz. I talked with Todd for a bit about how he envisioned it and about finding Wendy's painting. Nice guy.

It was a fun show! I was only able to get away from my booth in short spells, so I hurried through the exhibits. As someone who does not play guitar, I was looking at them purely as objects of art and they were fantastic. My straps were well received by show goers and some of the luthiers, too. I sold about half of the straps I brought with me and took several custom orders.