I'm Backish

Where have I been? Good question. I've been here and working away, but I've really been in art mode. Now this is a great place to be when creating, which I'm doing. But I'm also learning very specific techniques and practices. So I think I'll have to come out of art mode and join again the real world. Dang.

I've put the last coat of shellac on the standard hourglass that I'm building. It is really pretty! I was paid a great compliment by a dulcimer enthusiast who follows my work (Really big smiles to you, Robin!). She saw an image of the latest instrument and said that it was clearly in the Sunhearth tradition. That made me happy and proud. Now I just need to keep improving my building skills to honor such a tradition.

It is two of my dads' birthdays this month. My not-dead-dad had his 70th on October 18. I used to not like him, when my mom first started dating him. But I was a teenage idiot who couldn't see beyond my own small world. I now love this dad as much as I can. And I hope I tell him often in words and deeds. He really does mean much to me, and of all of the persons in FL that I'll miss he is right at the top of the list. He helped me build some wonderful art, and he always has encouraging words for my projects.

I can feel myself not wanting to do this tonight, so I'm going to post this junky post to get me rolling again. More tomorrow? I hope so!

Fret Board and Peghead Missteps

Accuracy does not equal precision. Precision is being accurate consistently. Dwain noticed that I tend to think things are simple, and in my entire life things always have been--I just get them. But that is certainly not working for me in the shop now. I about had a meltdown yesterday over my fretboard that I think should have been done two weeks ago. But the reason I'm still working on it is because it is not right. For whatever reason I'm putting a lot of pressure on me to get done and get home; I miss Val as much as she misses me.

I think, though, that I got so focused on the future that I'm not always here now, and I think that is causing me to be inconsistent in some ways. So yesterday I went into relax mode and drew images and watched some shows. I'm glad that I allowed myself some time because I came to the conclusion that I need to just be here now. My second instrument is nearly done and I've started on the third. I learn daily, and I'm gaining much. I figured that my last machine, or maybe second to the last, that I will build will be my best one. I can only practice building until then. And I'm sure I'll learn something new from each build until then.

I've never been a technician. It just has not been necessary trait for anything that I've had to do. I emote and intuit a lot--even in teaching. Not the stupid kind of blind faith that leads others to fly planes into buildings. This is a strength that I possess, but in order to become a luthier who builds exquisite dulcimers of superb beauty, projection, voice and action.

So I've started keeping different kinds of notes in my sketchbook. In part, they are just more thorough. But I couldn't have done this until now because there really is just so much stuff to learn that I cannot get it all in the first run. Or the second. Probably not the third or fourth, either. I told Dwain I'll be calling him frequently for advice. He said something about nominal fee, and I just shut him out at that point because as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote, "You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed."

I got to try the template that Dwain made for me on my fretboard, and it worked out just fine. The only problem was that I cut a slot in the wrong place. Jiminy Cricket! But I basked in the moment of "I'm and idiot." and then moved on. It means that the fretboard won't be done for a few days beyond whatever it would have been done, but now I get to put in some Bear Meadow FlexiFrets®. Dwain invented them, and he has a mug to prove it.

And I smiled all day.

I worked more on my peghead today after I got as far as I could with the fretboard. Dwain said repeatedly that it is being proficient with your tools, knowledgeable about your materials, and flexible in the way that you deal with each instrument built, even when following the same procedures and processes--which is vital.

I messed up a couple of times on the peghead, but nobody will ever be the wiser because my fixes were pretty good, which is another thing that I'm gaining from my studies here: learning that every misstep, whether mine or the materials or a tool, is an opportunity to learn how to work differently to achieve the same results.

I've not been showing you my food because I eat it before I realize that I didn't take a picture. But rest assured that I'm still eating good stuff. Tonight I had two boiled eggs, two pickles, two pieces of pumpernickel bread, a jalapeño, a banana, and an orange. I'm fed-up!

Fretboard for Standard Hourglass and Peghead for Duck

I had breakfast here at Gretchen's this morning, and this means that I can sleep until 7am! I did eat all of the oatmeal in the house this morning. I'll make cheesy eggs tomorrow. And toast. And some pickles. I did just run 7.25 miles, so I may be a bit hungry still. I did have two big and drippy peanut butter sandwiches tonight.  And a pickle with a banana. Maybe I should have a snack.


I surveyed the fretboard this morning when I got in, and there were some major adjustments that were needed. So I spent the morning doing carving hundreths of thousandths of inches out of the zircote fingerboard. But I finally got the four key measurements within their acceptable parameters, which ain't easy! Here is a screen shot of the log that I keep so that I can better understand the movement of the wood. As I put it into new shapes the wood had to agree to remain there, and sometimes there is a lot of work to convince it to do so. We'll see tomorrow.

The instrument that the fretboard is going on is complete, except for the fretboard itself. Once it stops exhibiting changing pains I'll get the frets on it, and it'll be ready to be attached to the top. And once that happens the top goes on, the pegs get fitted, some strings go on, and the nut and saddle are put in their place to make sure the instrument is intoned perfectly. And the feet, it gets some feet. And more. There really is a bunch more to finish this instrument. I guess all that I'm saying is that this beauty will be done soon!

Then I started work on the new instrument. I got the peghead and tailblock all cut up and ready to be carved down further. There are no crazy logs to keep, but there are some pretty fine measurements to make, like allowing for a saw kerf. 

This instrument is going to be the biggest body for a double bout that I'm going to make until Dwain gives me the okay to build the equivalent of the Bear Meadow Concert Grand, but my version will have different ornamentation. But from the beginning I've always liked the single bout instrument a bit more. Val says its because I like big bottoms. So maybe that is enough of a reason that my top-end model be a single bout. Don't get me wrong, the double bout instruments are remarkably beautiful. Look how the shoulders gently sweep down into the waist to become the major bout. Beautiful. But I do like big bottoms.

I used two different bandsaws to get a lot of extra wood off of the two components. Some of the cuts are pretty complicated, and all of the cuts have to be precise. There are a lot of ways to fix an art problem when it comes to wood. But you cannot put the wood back together if you cut it up wrong, which is why I spent so much time yesterday getting the drawings right.

The tailblock is a bit simpler, but I had to be no less precise. Every problem that I create at the early stages can get magnified at the end. So I make sure that everything is the most right that it can be before I move on. 

After the cuts are made the carving begins. There really are a few other steps before I got here, but how much do you want to know, really? 

I used a cabinet scraper and hand-made scrapers to get the saw marks off of the peghead. This cleanup is really the final one before carving, so it has to be really good, even knowing that much of this wood will get carved away.

Once the peg head is scraped down and cleaned up the lines that I'll follow to carve are put on. Okay, I'll give you some of the minutia. If you look at this image of the peghead you can see the lines running horizontalish, with the edge of the image. The lines on the left side--not the round part--find their home this way:

1. Using a four inch combo square mark lines the approximate thickness of the ribs on the back along the sides of the tongue.
2. Using the rib-thickness lines as a center point, draw two marks the width of the pegbox walls.
3. Using the center line at the scroll head, measure out .5" on both sides and put a mark.
4. Connect the inside lines at the back with the inside lines at the scrollhead.
5. Connect the outside lines at the back with the outside lines at the scrollhead.

This centers all of the activity where the tongue goes into the peghead. This apprenticeship is teaching me to follow this kind of process for each component on the dulcimer. That is why Dwain's instruments are of such high quality and why mine will be very-well constructed, too.

Have you been to our web site? Go and check out the site and what we are doing. I've gotten my second commission, and that is absolutely amazing and most humbling.

Sunshine Wave Studios. Art, music, and education for life.

I will work hard and make great instruments.

Art and Life

Even though I've been working on the same components, this has been a great few days of work. I'm learning so much, even if I don't have it all yet. This is a picture of my sketchbook from August. On the upper left is a list of the components that I thought made up a dulcimer from then. The list below that one is one I did last night, and it has over twice as many components than my August list. And I did the drawing, too. In the drawing I left out two components. And I know I left off some components. So I cannot wait until next month's drawings!

Last night I had such a struggle. I got home and settled a bit later then my usual time, and I wanted to draw. So I had to decide between blogging and drawing. I chose the list and drawing that I did on the August sketchbook page. And I started another drawing. Granted these are less lyrical than my normal drawings, and they are a lot less emotional--or are they?

I drew this after I gave an exercise to my drawing class. The exercise was to put a longish object next to two vertical objects. Then there had to be a forced perspective. I loved to use these stuffed animals in my drawing class because they were mine and I'd drawn them a lot. So one day I got home and threw them on my studio table. I came back later and they looked like they were going to fight. So I put my shotgun between them and drew what I saw in charcoal and pastel. The ghosty marks are my continuous effort to get the shotgun laying down into space as I saw it and not as I thought is should be. My kids loved it when I showed them how hard I had to work to get it right.

And I love to make drawings that are somewhere between the two drawings above, where I can combine the real with the imagined, which is really just a different kind of real, right. I've never been a guy who can create in a vacuum. I found out that this goes for the work that I'm doing now.

Today I had to draw out the lines to cut the tongue on the peghead. I had to find a place to begin because the end of the wood was not square with my base or reference sides. I sat there for some time before I figured out how to start that part. But I'm really happy that I came up with the idea to start on my own. And then when I shared that with Dwain he said that he did the same thing. I'm glad that I'm thinking at a higher level with some of this stuff because I'm feeling like a baby with other parts.

I spent quite a while on this today, but now that I'm starting the third machine I plan on being meticulous with my notes and drawings. Then I'm going to combine all of the different notes, my drawings, blog material, and more together to make a compendium of building dulcimers.

I have no idea when it will end because there will be information to add as I experience different circumstances with building, like with the finger board, where I messed up and had to cover that with the zircote laminate. Now I have another thing to add to me list--laminate finger board.

Tonight we went out to a hotdog joint to celebrate Dwain's birthday. Gretchen met us there with a cake, and we had dinner and dessert and gifts. It was really nice to celebrate with these guys because today was our anniversary--Val and me, I mean. As I was soft-stalking Dwain to make sure that me studying with him was right I found out that his birthday is on our anniversary. We took that as some sort of cosmic sign.

We've been together since '08 and married for two of those years. I cannot share enough how great my time with Val has been. I've grown so much in these years with her support. I do love that woman. Who else gets a hand-made shirt for their anniversary?

Don't Fret It--and I Didn't!

Today was a great day because I got to see Val get ready for their Holloween Camp, which turned out to be a blast.

And then in the shop we were in making moods, and I remarked to Dwain that he was in zone--focused intensely and intently on his work. Dwain calls it the groove. I can dig that.

He is working with a client, and it was great to get a feel for the business end of what I'm doing and deciding not to do. Dwain also got me in contact with a luthier, Paul, who focuses on repairs. Paul is going to give me all of his junky pegs! What sculptor would turn that down? And then Dwain cooked my favorite sausage sandwiches for us for dinner. Being around Dwain has been really good for me, and I'm taking advantage of as many of the opportunities as I can so that I can grow.

And I am really growing in so many ways at so many different paces that I've been a little out of balance. So what does a wobbly guy do but start his taiji--again. I really began at the beginning of the summer, but this was only a change from the other stuff I've been practicing. It seems I forget more and more mantis each time I work out because I just don't practice it. Maybe I will, though, because I really do like the stuff. Maybe as my taiji strengthens I can do more mantis. But until then I'm just doing it in the garden, kind of like a mantis.

I worked on the sound holes today. I worked on them last night until I was done, but they were drawn really sloppily. I used the eraser tool. So today while Dwain was testing his tonewood I was drawing them again. And I get the lines tightened up, mostly. We talked about Photoshop vs. Illustrator and I told hi that I started learning it 5 or 6 times before I said forget it. It is just not intuitive enough for me to engage me long enough to get going with it. Maybe I'll try it again someday. Maybe. But probably not.

I printed stuff out at Dwain's via Bluetooth, and away I went on the sound holes. The last time I did this I used a plunge router, and my work was a bit beaver chewed. I remember I had to do a lot of filing then and today. When I'm doing this at home I will use the scroll saw, for sure, because there may be a little more work to get to the cut but there is virtually none afterwards. Val figured this out because last year I was using a variety of blades to cut and she was cleaning each piece--we were slammed with orders and loved the work! Once she realized this, we made a change in the blades we use now.

Dwain gave me a Dremel to use this time, and I did a better job than the one I did with the router. But there was still some beaver chew going on. So more work with the files. But I could see clearly through plates and doing this would be great for my folk art you can play with. I do hope Paul has some instrument bodies to give me.

Dwain made a fret template for me for the two sizes of fretboard I'll use. So today were were going to use it and do the fretwork by hand. Let me just tell you it was my first day at this, oh boy. I should have known it was going to go screwy because I had crazy eyes like Crazy Eyes while I was polishing up the fingerboard.

Then we set the rig up and set to cutting. In the first three frets there were five slots cut. At first the fretboard was going to get tossed, but we came up with the idea to do a zircote fingerboard.

So I put some shims and glue in the bad slots, and trimmed the excess wood away. Then, because we were adding a top to the fretboard we had to plane it down about an eighth of an inch. So we used the jointer planer. After about the seventh pass I realized that we were blowing our squares. After a measurement that should have happened a couple of passes before showed us that, yep, it ain't square.

There wasn't much wood left to play with, so Dwain decided that the drum sander would be the best way to fix this. We got that sanded down and did the zircote, too. Then we used fish glue and put the pieces together. We used a lot of clamps because nobody wants a fretboard related injury! I have a set of Caspari pegs that I think would go great with this instrument!

Wasps and Clean-up and Fretboard Work

This has been a really tough week or so at Bear Meadows. There was an infestation of wasps, and I was stung twice in the head in one ouching; Dwain was stung five or six times. So the wasps had to go because when their numbers grew so large in the shop they sounded like an A-10 Tank Killer coming to do some killin'. Dwain, though, had a different experience, and my heart was heavy for him:

     "One of my saddest days at Bear Meadow, today. For several weeks Mark and I had been noticing yellow-jackets in the shop, not understanding where they were coming from. Then, over the last few days we discovered they had bored into one wall of the studio and formed a nest. I caulked the holes shut, then when that didn't stop the exodus of wasps into the shop, bought some foam insecticide to spray over the area where the holes had been bored. We caught them at the windows and screens by slipping a jar over each one, then sealing by sliding a cardboard over the mouth, then releasing them outside, hoping they would finally all exit.

     Still no stop in the bees entering the shop. Then, today, I found a small place where they were entering the studio, up in the mezzanine;, in a crack around an electrical outlet box. Hoping that stopping them there would do the job, I bought more spray, and insecticide-laden foam insulation to seal the box.
     But then Mark put his ear to the floor and could hear a steady buzz and chewing noise. So we had a full-scale invasion on our hands! Lacking the funds to hire an exterminator, I enlisted Mark in a retaliation. We bored holes and carefully sprayed two cans of insecticide into the walls of the cavity they were nesting in.

     After finishing, and cleaning up the spray that drained out, we decided to go over to Gretchen's house for dinner. but on the way over I was overcome by such an intense mourning and grieving for these thousands of lives we had just exterminated.

Of course, it simply could not be allowed to have them invading the shop. Sooner or later someone who was susceptible to anaphylactic shock was going to be bitten. Already, Mark had been bitten twice on the head, and I half a dozen times during the caulking. And I'm still swollen in the joints from it. So there was no way to co-habit with these little beasties.

     And yet I grieve them, and feel the studio is defiled by the sounds of their buzzing and dropping dead, even far into the dark of the evening when wasps are ordinarily quiescent. The puzzle of life is far from a pleasantry."

But we are over that now because Dwain did some things to get himself balanced, and then he called in an exterminator who seemed to know what he was about. And there were only four or five wasps today, and they just wanted to leave. So we let them.

Even though I could not build the work did not cease; I just shifted gears out of the shop and did some research and development. I got this idea that if I draw every part of the dulcimer in detail that I'd have to know clearly how to make it. So that is what I'm doing, drawing a dulcimer in an exploded view.

This started out as an exercise in my sketchbook, but then I remembered just how difficult making an accurate drawing really is. I don't mean that each peg must be drawn exactly like the other--although I would love to have that kind of accuracy as the plan develops, and I'll work towards that. But I really mean how each different part is living in the space that I create on the page. This is tough!


I'm not sure how I came up with the idea but I cannot imagine why I didn't see it before because by drawing each part and the tools needed to make it will reinforce what I've learned and help me keep of a log of what I've been doing--or will do.


This drawing is the sixth that I've done of the entire dulcimer. In the sixth drawing, though, the machine became a single bout. I don't think I got lazy--I have been going around the city a lot the last few days. I think that is just my favorite shape, for now. I am really liking the curves of the double bout that I'm working on now.

I'm going to have to just call this sexy, with its beautiful curves and lovely lines. I was telling Dwain today how making a dulcimer is like doing a drawing--only this is the ultimate subtractive method of mark making. Of course there is always the ability to add, which I had no clue about.

Today I repaired two cuts using shims that were less than .045 of an inch. I get them glued in, scraped down, and living as if they always lived where they sit. Amazing that this is possible and that I'm learning how to do it. I'll certainly look closer at other's instruments to see how they deal with the art problems that they face.

To make the drawings I had to have the right equipment. I needed graph paper, a compass, a ruler, special pens--all stuff I have at home in TN, where Val took this picture a couple of days ago. Home. I still cannot believe it. I have to say that I didn't go kicking and screaming to TN, but I was really reluctant to leave FL because of the natural treasures like the beach, swamps, oak hammocks--I could go on, really. Thank goodness Val is more far-seeing than I am!

The art supply store where I had to get the materials is just over two miles from here through leaf lined streets. So I went the first time to get a sketchbook and some white pencils to try at the shop. The sketchbook is going to be a compendium of information, experiences, and directions from an apprentice new to building dulcimers. Wouldn't you know that it was the very next day is when I started the exploded drawings. and needed to go back to the art store.

Again, it was really pretty out while we were off these past couple of days, so walking there was not a huge burden. I got to see police on horses. That would be the great duty to pull for a police officer. At least on the days like this where the weather is pleasantly cool and the sun comes out every once in a while. Plus, there were only few persons around.

Did I tell you I ran 8 miles the other day? I knew I was going to run and wanted to go a ways. So when I found the trail that runs beside the river I was beside myself with glee. Still, the trail could use some water and bathrooms. But I feel like a beast when I finish a long run without stopping--except for cars. Cars and bikes. Without much stopping, anyway.

So walking to and from places is just wonderful because there is so much to see and experience that cannot be done by car or bike.

I cannot imagine how much information we lost as a species as soon as the first pair of shoes was put on. It is all we can do now to get as from from nature as possible. There are so many times that I want to kick off my shoes and run naked through the grass, but this is NY; I don't want to get choked to death, or shot, or even tased--although it may be worth it for a tasing. Maybe.

I walked to the store and then on the way back I stopped for a lunch at this BBQ place that people rage about. And I do admit it was good.

But there was way too much food for any one normal human being--which means it was right for the average American. I must have been off of my game because I couldn't finish. I ate one half of the sandwich on the bread, and then I ate the other half without the bread. And I ate only about half of the fries. That was all I could eat!

After lunch I went to the public library and drew away from everyone as I got to sit in the private space of my iPhone with my earbuds in, and I got to people watch in a busy public space. I finished the fifth drawing at the library, and I headed home. But I got sidetracked at this music store where Val found a mandolin she liked. Thank goodness it turned out to be a little not great. They did have a bunch of other really nice instruments, too. But they had some not so great Chinese made ones. I wonder why.

I finally got home and started on the number six drawing. I made it to the top tonewood on the instrument, and I had just five parts left to add. But I realized that I left out two braces. So I messed this sixth drawing up, too. So I'll finish it and start another one. I'll keep going until I get right. And then I'll do the same for each section, like the peghead or tailblock.

I'm still working on the second instrument and am on the final cleanup for the body and top. I'll hopefully finish the fretboard in the next couple of days so that I can be done with this by next week. Were still two weeks or so behind, but life gets in the way of working, and I cannot beat myself up too much. I can only work in the shop and make sure I'm doing my homework and live with the results--which are so far beautiful!