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I just don't see how that could have been done with anything but a viscous material like putty, epoxy or wood filler, then carefully sanded down flush with the wood. Look at how non-linear the division between dark and light colored material is, and yet there are no voids. Whenever you see inlay, the cuts are as close to perfectly round or square/straight as possible, because that is the only way the inlay can be perfectly fitted into the host material. Yet in this case the cuts are anything but perfect. They're wavy and nowhere close to uniform.
Mind you - I'm NOT criticizing the work - someone had to spend a great deal of time doing this with probably minimal training and tools. I'm just trying to figure out how it was done. And the way I think it was done is that the artist cut out the plug holes with a knife or chisel, without any sort of guide or edge. He/she then clamped the two grips together with a strip of plastic stock (greased or oiled so the plug material wouldn't stick to it) to form a primitive sort of mold, then poured opaque epoxy or filler material into each grip. Once it was dry, he/she unclamped it then used an XActo or similar edge to scrape away any proud spots.
Do I know this to be the case? Nope...but I don't know how else this could have been done.
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