I'm here now.

It has been a wonderful month since I last posted. Val and I have been up to a lot of getting our house and life straight. I've been thinking that there is some end to our efforts, but we are living our lives. I told Val the other day that I don't want to be in a great life twenty years from now, and I'm sure that it will be great because we are working so hard at it now! I want to be here now.

I'm building away on several instruments, and I'm designing two others. I'm having a lot of fun taking the skills and techniques that I learned from Dwain and mixing them with own art sensibilities to create stuff. Not just the musical instruments, which I love. But I'm also using what I learned to make the toys that we've always made. But now with my new shop and skills it takes me so much less time to cut. Designing them is still loads of fun, but even this takes less time. I'm not sure if it is a confidence thing or an I've been doing it a while thing. But I designed this one, cleaned up the wood, cut it out, finished sanding it, and then oiled it up in about two hours. Do you need a puzzle--sunshinewave.org?

I'm not just working away on the instruments but also building up my tools and supplies. I could not do this without the largess of some wonderful and kind people. Not only are others buying my instruments, which is really a gift to me in so many ways, but others are giving me what I need when I need it!

This fine looking fellow has been really helpful with advice, suggestions, and even some tools, like this Shopsmith. I've got all of the major tools that I need minus a table saw. So the Shopsmith will be my table saw--and I'll work on getting the rest of the components on the tool working.

When I was up with Dwain he had two great saw stands, which I first used to cut down the wood that would make my first three dulcimers. They were really cool looking and had rolling pins for rollers. I loved them. Anytime I'd walk by them I'd spend a little time with them. Well on page 12 of my new owners manual for my new thirty year old tool lives the directions to build the stands!

Bill Taylor is a wonderful builder and kind, gentle man. His wife Barbara does much good in the world, and Val and I are lucky to have met them at the Chattanooga Dulcimer Festival, which was a blast! I met and got to spend some quality time with great people like Dan and Angie Landrum and Butch Ross. And I got to reconnect with two of my favorite players, Stephen Seifert and Aaron O'Rourke. Kind and wonderful people to hang with and play music, all of them!

I've been spending a little time in Bill's shop, and just rubbing elbows with him is a treat, for sure. But then he tells me about his life and adventures and about building. I told him I want to teach poor kids who have an interest in building in playing how to do so, and Bill, who is also a teacher, wants to do the same thing. Partnership maybe? How lucky would I be!

I'm just giving Bill another set of hands and he is giving me life lessons coupled with building tips. Really, how lucky am I!

This experience comes at a great time because I got a commission that will challenge me when it comes to wood, like this gorgeous ambrosia maple--which a friend describe as the wings of an angel. So the new instrument will be made out of purpleheart because the guy who ordered it runs a music education company that is geared towards kids. So bright is right, right? Richard Ash, another wonderful and kind human being who I met in KY is helping me with the wood. Folkcraft is wonderful for so many reasons, and Richard is truly a gem!

So I'm getting some confidence in experimenting, but I'm building the new instrument to the same specs I use now. In fact, it will be just like this one that I'm working on now--except for the wood and sound holes. 

Sonam of my last blog post saw this one and wants one just like it. So I'm working on that one now!

Anyway, this one for the rabbi in FL is nearly done. The varnish is on, and now I have to dull it up a bit and wax it. Then the pegs go in and the intonation gets set. I'm stoked for this one.

The new commission will be a teardrop with three pegs and custom sound holes, which I'm designing. And I'm going to make it all purple and orangish. I'm even going to carve the end pins.

I just touched up Sonam's pehead, where I had to reach it to Dwain for some advice--it's for life, Dwain! And I reworked the soundholes a bit to make them smaller. The carving will be tougher, but you've probably seen Dwain's Celtic knots. Well I am working to be at his level, right? So challenge accepted.

And if I screw it up, well, I've always got this critic to keep me straight.

Sonam of the North

So much has happened as I attempt to get settled into TN life. I'm still working away at building up my shop so that I can make instruments. And I'm playing music so that I can be a better builder. Val sure laid a great foundation for us to build on here in Maryville, and we are doing our best to make it work.

We are both working away to make a living at making our crafts and teaching others what we have learned. It is slow going, and if not for the largess of some dear friends we'd be homeless and worse. But we are both interviewing for jobs--Val got hers really--and that should keep us as we build up our own business (sunshinewave.org).

It has been a real challenge for me to go from a well-thought out shop that has been in use for many years to a cramped basement and garage to make instruments. I'm still not there. I sometimes feel like I'm using the wrong tools for a job, but the truth is I just have to make due with what I have until I can build up my own toolbox. And as I build I'm finding that I cannot use what Dwain was using because although we are building essentially the same instruments there are differences.

Like my sound holes. After much debate with other artists that I like and whose opinion I value I came up with results for my soundholes that I really like. I'm stull using the Sunshine Wave Studios logo, but now I'm doing a black inlay around the edge. This was a fun and difficult process to learn. Dwain helped me by steering me to information that he has online, and he just kind of made me feel good about doing it. There were some rough sketches before this, but now I have a jig that I set up when doing my soundholes. Of course, that presupposes that all of the soundholes are the same--which, in theory, mine are.

Except with custom soundholes, like these chamsa that I designed for a custom order that is a gift for a rabbi. This is a picture of André walking on the soundboard that put a lot of hours into to get the black walnut inlaid and cut out--those are the soundholes in case you didn't get that. André approved.

So I'm building away on smaller and less complicated dulcimers as I'm working on this custom order for the rabbi. In this way I can work out bugs and tool issues, of which there have been many. But this is what i signed up for, so I just have to shut up and do it!

While at Dwain's we designed and built a mold that doubles as a go-bar deck. We didn't have time to test it up there, so that was another stressor for me because the molds are the most important tool I have to build in the Bear Meadow and Sunhearth style--besides the templates, maybe.

I've made six instruments, and I've gotten to take them to two different major festivals so far. I've have some great players try them out and have gotten some wonder feedback. One thing that I've discovered is that each of the players has his or her own idiosyncrasies. Of course this shouldn't surprise me, but I didn't realize how disparate techniques, methods, and styles really are. Aaron O'Rourke definitely plays differently than Stephen Seifert, but they both like to play my machines!

Plus I've met some wonderful builders who are opened and helpful. I absolutely love David Lynch even more now that I've met him in person. I can grow up to be him! David had some wonderful advice and suggestions about building and selling in the dulcimer world. And Bill Taylor, I do hope that I get to spend more time with him. There are many, really. I've set a goal of visiting five builders a year, but I count meetings like this as just as good--but I'd still love to see their shops, lairs, whatever they call 'em.

I met a really interesting guy while I was up in Rochester studying with Dwain. This guys name is Sonam, and he is a musician. Sonam plays a variety of instruments, and he really likes drone instruments for his throat singing--which I got to hear. If you've never heard it look it up.

One day he came into the place I was staying in Rochester, and I was playing "O Death," which is in a minor key. He loved the sound, and sat down and started playing away. I knew he is a musician because he just went to town. He ended up commissioning an instrument.

Aside here: I've had a bunch of inquiries and some commissions. But the first three were for a rabbi, a spiritual, holistic healer and herbalist, and a frocked monk. I'd love to be the guy who gives holy healers their instruments!

Well I've finally started on his instrument. It will be the same as the rabbi's, a single bout with a scroll head. The overall length is around 42", so it is a monster. But the voice will be lovely! As you can see by the scrollhead there will be four tuners, though.

I've got all of the curves in place, and she'll get really sexy in the next few days as I put more curves and details in.

I do miss the flora and fauna of FL, but I'm settling into TN, itself. I guess since I live in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains I cannot complain about not having nature. And I'm starting to go out into TN and do more. I miss swimming! But I did get to dip my hands into a mountain stream today. I didn't take my clothes off and swim.

As I was hiking in the mountains today I walked up on a bear. I didn't chase him.