The lute displays exceptional craftsmanship. Its body is made almost entirely of wood, and carefully carved and stained designs of blooming roses decorate the back and neck. The sound hole has been intricately formed to appear as a knot of three roses, with delicate wooden detailing. The strings are made of tightly bound sheep gut strands with metal wire cores, giving a temperature-stable, more resonant sound. The highest pitched strings are pure gut, while the bassiest strings are pure metal.
The soundboard face of the lute is of light reddish mahogany, chosen for its resonance. It is 2mm thick, with an extremely thin shellac layer to prevent staining. The inside of the belly of the board has braces placed at whole number ratios of scale and belly length, which themselves rest against the structural ribs. The soundboard has an intentional small inwards bend, to afford the player’s hand more space between string and board. Finally, a half-binding of ebony wood joins the board to the belly, its dark color accenting the red of the mahogany.
The back of the lute is made of rosewood strips, glued edge to edge to form the deep and rounded body of the instrument. The strips have been joined so closely as to make the glued seams invisible, and decorative spiralling rose stems stained in greener color create a contrast against the red of the wood.
The neck of the lute is made of very lightweight reddish-stained and shellaced paulownia wood, with a veneer of darker ebony wood providing durability to the fretboard. The pegs themselves, held in place by friction, are made of tapered mesquite, a rich brown wood with extreme dimensional stability to keep the lute tuned longer. On the back of the neck, a twin helix of thorny rose vines travels up to the pegbox, where they terminate in open rose blooms. The pegbox itself is angled a full 90 degrees back from the rest of the neck, to hold the low-tension strings against the nut of the lute. The nut is not glued, but held in place by the strings. It is a carved and polished piece of ivory, pure white.
The bridge of the lute is made of pear heartwood: light pink, resonant, and durable. It tapers in height and length, with the smaller end holding the trebles and the higher end holding the basses. Each end of the bridge is decorated with carved closed roses, and the bridge itself rests at a 5th of the belly’s length.
The frets are made of loops of gut tied around the neck at defined intervals. Unusually, additional wooden partial frets have been added. When played properly, they allow the player to attain a full additional octave of range at the highest pitches.
