Winding Down

I cannot believe that I'll be heading home in less than two weeks! I've been in Rochester since early June, so I'm just going to call that six months, just like anyone under the age of seven or over the age of eighty does when telling you how old they are--round up.

This is my latest build. It really is the prettiest of the three I've made, and its tone is lovely. I was lucky that I found this gem of a piece of black walnut for the back. It even had some worm holes from when it was part of the tree. This is easily the prettiest instrument that I've made. My craftsmanship is improving overall, like my carving.

The scrollhead on this machine is much rounder and softer. Dwain likes hard, crisp lines, and I did that for my first one. But I was allowed to change it up after that, so I did. There will definitely be modifications to what I do to my instruments, just as Dwain changed what he learned from Walt as he developed his own practice. But the overall beauty and grace will not change. I still dream of burning images onto the machines, and I did practice a little while I was here. So I will definitely pursue that as I build on.

Even though I've started working on the fourth instrument I'm not sure if I will finish it or not. I spent the day today making templates and a template holder. I've still got to build the mold to build and other stuff that I really want to learn.

Dwain has been away--up the river! Dwain is really one of the most self-aware persons I know. As a seventy-five year old I guess he should be standing on pretty solid ground, as far as who he is as a person.

When he came to me some weeks ago to say that he felt compelled to protect NY from frackers and planned some civil disobedience, I told him that it warms my heart that he would do so--after all, I've spent time in jail for protesting (My deployment to Iraq showed me the horrors of war.). He said that he faces up to fifteen days in jail if he goes through with the action, and this would cut into our time together. I said that this is the final session, where I gain my independence; I went on to say that I wasn't expecting him to purposefully put a bulwark between us so that I have to work on my own, but if he had to... He patted me on the head and said it wasn't about me.

So Dwain went to jail

And away I worked. It really was good for me to have the time to struggle. As I was building I had to refer to my sketchbooks for the notes that I've been taking since I started. I'm going to turn them and this blog and other dulcimer information into some kind of building compendium. Maybe. Who has time for that, really?

I've been looking at a lot of old illustrations in old children's books, and I've practicing my drawing with ink and watercolors. I'm not sure why, but I think that this will have something to do with drawing on the instruments with heat. What if I can color them, too? I could use dyes or shellac. I'm just not sure.

One lesson that I learned, and probably the most important lesson, is that something is going to happen with the wood or a tool or me and I'm going to mess up whatever I'm doing. The trick is to not fixate on that and move on. Fix the problem and go. I do this in my own art practice, but it didn't occur to me that I'd have to do it with sculpting and building, too. But now this is my art practice. Wood is my medium. Even if it is contemptible, like the peghead that I'm carving now!

After I knocked off part of the scroll I had to glue it back on. Then I was just done. It was all I could do not to fall down and sleep. I wasn't sure what was happening, and then I realized I haven't had chicken for a few days, chicken or fish only, please, just like in China. I need meat. Sure, I've had protein through fake meat stuff. But I need some flesh. So I didn't want to do any more damage to the carving and decided to make all of the templates that I'd be taking home. I made most of them, but I still have more to do. We'll see how I feel tomorrow and if I'll carve or prepare to work at home.

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!