Day 24: Grad. School Manifestations.

Last night Gretchen came home. She was away cooking for a group. She really enjoys doing it, and it is really nice to see how fulfilled she is afterwards. I've seen this twice, and she has more gigs this summer. Both times she returned she brought me brownies! And you can see that they are most present in tonight's dinner laying on top of my spicy pickles. So I had a fetta cheese sandwich on Amish made wheat bread, a banana, some cashews, an apple, two spicy pickles, jalapeño peppers, and two brownies washed down with Chamomile tea.

Dwain did something to his back the other day, so today he went to the chiropractor. It clearly did him so good because he was hopping around today. He was feeling better yesterday, too, and he was getting around pretty good. But now he is good-to-go. So we didn't meet until around noon. I spent the morning playing the dulcimer and trying to figure out chords. It ain't really happening. I'm going to need a teacher to show me some stuff because I don't have a foundation for this, at all. Isn't Val a music teacher? you ask. Well yes, and she tried to teach me music theory; it was not good for our marriage. In her words about teaching me, "I really liked when I got to walk away."

So I got to the shop and worked on bookmatching the black walnut. I'm really getting the use of a plane down, and it is nice to see that I have the control to fix minor details with a plane to get the gentlest curve in the wood. This is translating to some of the other tools, too, like when I used a scraper to take create a curve on the fretboard, which adds tension to the machine.

Imagine the fretboard is a straight piece of wood. So what I have to do is create the curve so that the measurements are specific for exact places on the wood. For example, at the fifth fret there should be .010 of an inch, and at the eighth fret the measurement should be .080 of an inch. So the curve should be consistent and have these two measurements. Dwain siad don't worry because it will get quicker. I think he thought that I was upset that I had to work so hard to get this, but I was really enjoying the task, which I accomplished! So I got to practice with several planes and a cabinet scraper. And I'm learning to do very finite measurements.


So bookmatching. Yeah. I took two pieces of wood out today and they snapped in half like well dried twig. So I had to scrape off the glue and plane them down again. There may be several things going on, and we made adjustments to the way I was planing and how I was clamping them into the jig. Plus, Dwain showed how he did one, and then I repeated what he did. And then we cleaned up and I went to move the two sets we had just done because we need the table. I took too many weights off and the wood popped up. I have to redo it that one again too. Sheesh laweesh!

But I'm okay with messing up because all of this is new. Not working in a shop, I've got a pretty good handle on working with tools--did you see that? Maybe not the specifics, like planes, but I'm getting that stuff down pretty well. The great thing about what I'm doing is I'm learning to make the materials and some of the tools to make a dulcimer.

We had two really meaningful conversations today about our futures. It is really good to have these conversations because I need Dwain to know from where I am coming and to where I am going in terms of dulcimer building. I am working so that when Dwain is done building I can carry on the legacy of the Sunhearth/Bear Meadow dulcimer. There is no question that I will make some changes, just as Dwain did with Walt's instruments. But my machines will always remain true to their traditions. I want that. My graduate work in art school was about this very thing, but I could not know then how it is manifesting now. My art is lutherie.

This came up because there is a chance that I can build Sunhearth dulcimers for a guy who does a thing. The Sunhearth machines are less sophisticated than the Bear Meadow instruments because of the changes that Dwain has done over the years. They're not lower quality, they are just less specific to an end purpose--or specific musician. Anyway, I'd so do this for so many reasons, and I do hope it plays out that I get the gig.

Then we talked about if Dwain dies when. I would love to inherit his shop--and one coffee mug--but there are other factors which may preclude this from happening. And I'm fine with that--not Dwain dying, as he has more work on the planet to do--but it would break my heart to see the molds and other strictly Bear Meadow stuff get lost. I said I'd use his molds. He said yours will be an improvement. I said that is not the point, as spirited materials are sometimes the catalyst for the greatest magic possible.

Did you read or see (Both versions are worth spending time with!) "Like Water fro Chocolate"? Without spoiling anything a woman cooks food with so much emotion that others are moved to feel it, too. Now I don't want a bandit riding off with a dulcimer player or any showers burning down, but I do want others to feel the love of a machine that I build. I could not use one of Dwain's tools or molds without thinking of what I'm going through now and how I got here, the love and fulfillment that I'm feeling seeping into the wood even as I scrape pieces away is what others will feel. Again, this is what my graduate work was about, I just couldn't know exactly what I meant when I was talking about it all those years ago.

I'm sure we'll keep talking and I'll keep dreaming, but I'll keep working really hard to take all of this in so that there is no question at the end of my lessons with Dwain as to whether I'm the guy who can carry on his legacy.