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.

Indescribable

When someone goes to the mouth of a volcano and tries to relate that experience she says it is indescribable--because it is. I did that. I went to the mouth of a volcano, in that I watched a giant whose been around for some time lay the foundation for future growth. My growth.

So my time with Dwain, at least in person, is at an end for now. (I've already sent him four emails, though!) And my time with him is indescribable in a sentence or one blog post. You'll have to go back over the months and see the joys and frustrations, as well as lessons about life and lutherie.

Now Val and I are putting our lives back together, and in this one short week that I've been back I cannot help but to return to Rochester in my mind as Val and me do this and that to make our workshops workable. It will take me years to process everything that I experienced while there--not that last bike ride in what I'll call a blizzard; I get that lesson!

The machines that I made while there were inspected, critiqued, and checked for intonation. Pass. Informed. And pass. I cannot believe that I am at this point, and I am making machines that are so similar to Dwain's that I challenge you to choose his and mine in this image where we are both working at similar points in the build. Sure this is in part because I'm an artist and I worked hard to make a really pretty instrument, but I'd be silly not to say that Dwain is one of the best teachers that I've ever had. Period. Treat yourself to a lesson from this man before he decides he's done giving them!

What do I do now that Dwain has introduced me to this new way of making that I've never experienced? Keep building, of course. Already there are changes that I will make to what Dwain has given me, like fine tuners on some of the instruments. I really like the ease of using them, even with the Wittner pegs. And keep practicing.

I am sure that I will take the methods that I've learned and apply them to the making that I did before I went up to Dwain's studio. I can already imagine how the cutting and sanding and scraping and finishing will change the way that I make wooden puzzles.

I want to be great at installing and restoring friction pegs. So after a couple of lessons from Dwain and another couple from a violin builder, I've made a dummy peghead for practice. And I'll make a bunch more to keep practicing. And as I'm building for customers I'll keep doing what I want, with a healthy balance of what they want. It is all practicing to make the best instrument ever--check back with me in twenty years to see if I've made that instrument, but I ain't holding my breath. I will have put in so much practice building, though, that I will be making some wonderful instruments!

There are too many great builders out there doing wonderful stuff with their instruments who have yet to achieve that. I want to visit the shops of at least six builders a year; imagine how informed I'll be and how much we can share back and forth. So don't be shocked if I cold-call all y'all builders! And don't hesitate to visit me when you're in the area!

Yeah. Indescribable. How do I explain the way I feel about building instruments based on a history that is older than I am? Not just the Appalachian Mountain Dulcimer, but me following in the footsteps of the Sunhearth tradition in aesthetics mixed with the acoustic dynamics of Bear Meadow building. And the instruments look so much alike. I was paid a great compliment when Robin Thompson said something like the tradition lives on. As you can see in this image, Dwain's looks like Walt's and mine looks like Dwain's. Just beautiful! I'm still so amazed that I can even be a part of this. And I won't ride on any names, either. I'll do my own thing. But I certainly won't forget upon whose shoulders I stand to have risen so high so fast with my building ability!

And I got so much more out of my time with Dwain, like tools and equipment--even equipment that we designed and built! Like this mold machine, where the sides for the different instruments that I make come off of the base. So I have only one base and four different sets of sides. And we built the go-bar deck right into it! Not only did I get the experience of working on the molds that Dwain has, but I got to build my own--from scratch and a design that was born out of a half-worked idea from one of Dwain's former students.

But I wanted to be home, and badly. So when Val said that she was sick of living alone and that I was done and had to be home by Thanksgiving I began to make plans with Dwain to be home then. We decided on the projects that we must finish before I left and I kept working away on my own instruments. Then, I packed into a minivan that would hold not one more thing all of my stuff from Dwain and from Gretchen, the angel with whom I stayed while in Rochester, and I drove straight through from Rochester to Maryville. 

Yeah, it snowed all of the way through NY and rained through PA, but the sun shown brightly as I went through OH. When I got through KY and into TN it started to rain and snow and sleet depending on which part of the mountains I was up or down on. Twelve hours later I was cuddling with my wife and our two boys, who surely smelled the other cats that I lived with because they just ignored me mostly--or passed out from the excitement of seeing me. I'm not sure which.

And Val. Oh my lovely Val. As kindhearted a person as you'll ever meet. She loves me and supports me in what I do just as I do her. Did we cry in these last six months? I know I did. It was a hard decision to sink everything into a life of building and making so that we can live off of what we do.

But we took the leap. And we landed on our butts a few times, and we've not stopped bouncing yet. It will be a long time before we regain our balance from the move, my training, and getting Val the tools, equipment, and materials necessary for her to do her thing. Please check us out at sunshinewave.org and consider buying something or commissioning something. We'll be a better family for it, and you can enjoy and share the crafts that you get!

And here we are, living in Tennessee and playing our music and making our crafts. This Thanksgiving we went to Val's closest friend up here, and we got to celebrate with her, her family, and their close friends.

And I will grow.

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!