I wanted to do something to personalize my boat. (I had bought it used, simply because It was the right price. I had restored the interior, but I still wanted to add something just for the fun of it.) I came up with the idea of inlaying an animal into the bow.

After considering several things, I choose a dragonfly, as they frequent the rivers i run. I realize that a ram or bear would have been much more macho, but that simply isn't what i wanted. Besides, bears have never landed on my boat the way dragonflies often do.

First step was to decide on the exact size and shape. I chiseled a 3/16 deep hole the shape i decided on into bow. 

I wanted something colorful and on the bright side of the spectrum. Zebra wood for the head (the stripes added a lot) canary for the body and cocobolo for the wings. Cut, shaped, and sanded the body to the dimensions of the now existing hole in the bow. Once they were all dry fitted, and I was happy with the fit, I glued them in with uv resistant black caulking (in hopes that this would allow for slight movement and give years of maintenance-free use).

 The difficult steps were long behind me at this point. Sanding came next.

Here it is.

I really liked how it turned out, the contrast in colors was more than I initially intended, but once I was at this point I decided that a flashy colored dragonfly would be a great addition.

You can see one tiny corner between the body and lower left wing that was too fragile. It was knocked out accidentally while chiseling. Oh well.

Staining and varnish remained...

The colors were muted quite a bit. Which were my original intentions for the project. However, once I had it sanded, before staining, I really liked the contrasting colors.

I know...I flip and flop back and forth between what I want it to look like. 

Varnishing would end the project.

Finished. Over all, the project was very much enjoyed. (About 12 hours...ish of work)