“Who Knows Where the Time Goes?”

Remember that song? It was written by Sandy Denny (Strawbs, Fairport Convention) and made popular by Judy Collins in 1968. Well, to answer that “timely” question, time is just zipping by. My last post was two months ago, and the previous one was two months before that. Seems like only yesterday.

One reason for the recent delay in blog updates is, of course, the Holidays. Friends visited during Thanksgiving week, and then my wife and I traveled to Phoenix for Christmas. We stayed at the magnificent Arizona Biltmore, built in the 1920s and designed by Albert Chase McArthur, a student of Frank Lloyd Wright. The hotel design was definitely influenced by Wright (whose winter home, Taliesin West, was not too far away). The weather was cool, but clear and pleasant.

I spent one day climbing Piestewa Peak (formerly Squaw Peak), and it was grueling. It took me several hours to reach the top, a 1200 foot climb on one of the roughest, rockiest trails I’ve ever been on. It was worth it. The view that day was spectacular! (See photo.) I also visited the Musical Instrument Museum (MIM) again. Once more I spent nearly seven hours there studying the types and evolution of instruments from around the world. To me, it’s easily one of the best Museums around the country.

We also spent a great evening at the Desert Botanical Garden, which was having “Los Noches de Las Luminarias”, a beautiful Southwest-style Christmas season event. The entire facility and trails were lined with luminarias, which got prettier as the sun set. We walked the many trails, enjoying the desert environment, and had dinner in the events center.

New Work

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas I was working hard in my studio to complete a couple more pieces before the end of the year. Also, I’m finishing up a presentation I’ll give to the Diablo Woodworkers January 11th.

As you’ve seen in previous blogs, I’m working more and more on medieval-style furnishings. My newest piece is another hand-turned, hand-carved, rush seat stool. On my first rush seat stool I used fiber rush, a paper product. On my newest, I used the real thing: natural cat tail rush. Like most of my medieval-style furniture, this is white oak.

Over the last two years, I’ve made several autoharps based on the 1885-1890 originals by the Zimmermann Company in Dolgeville, New York. Around the middle of 2011, I did some patent searches on the internet for zithers, stringed instruments, and autoharps. One patent I found from around 1928 was for an autoharp of a very different design, round and long, and for standing up to play using a strap, like a guitar strap. I was intrigued and decided to make it. Here' it is:

The patent was given to J. H. Large, and so far, only one has turned up, and it was probably a prototype. It seems to have never gone into production. Oscar Schmidt came out with a similar autoharp in the 1960s called the Guitaro. The made hundreds, some electrified, for only a few years, and they keep popping up on eBay at pretty high prices.

During the 1920s, ukuleles were very popular, and Koa was the wood of choice. I still had some Koa left over from our trip to the big island of Hawaii 17 or 18 years ago, and used it for this autoharp. The binding, bridges, and keys are maple. It has 20 strings, and an unusual set of 9 key bars set up with two major, two minor, and five major sevenths. It has a very nice, full, resonate tone.

That’s it for now. I’m still working on another harp, and finally started on a medieval three-legged chair that’s been in the planning stages for over a year.

Onward…

Two Months Later…

It’s been a while since my last blog, and a lot has happened. First, there is only 9 days left for the Santa Cruz Woodworkers’ exhibit at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History, and tonight (November 4th) is the last First Friday event for the show. Now I’m feverishly trying to figure out where I’m going to put everything when I bring it home on the 14th.

Even though I’m running out of space in my house for my artwork, I've created quite a few new pieces since my last blog in August.

Instruments

I recently completed my fifth “Dolgeville” autoharp. It’s another Model 2 3/4, similar to the one I sold at the American Craft Council Show in San Francisco. This is the first instrument that I used the black walnut cut from South Dakota logs given to me a few years ago by one of my wife’s co-workers. It has a lovely flamed pattern on the bookmatched front and back. For a little change from my first Model 2 3/4, I carved faces on the key guides. Another lovely sounding instrument.

The second recently completed instrument is another black walnut hourglass Mountain dulcimer. This is “Molly Malone”, the Irish fishmonger selling “cockles and mussels, alive, alive-o”. The tuning pegs are hand-carved partially opening cockle shells. I think this one has incredible tone.

Medieval Furniture

Continuing on my newer artistic path, I’ve finished several pieces since August. First is another white oak hand-carved medieval trestle stool, similar to the one I have in the Museum of Art & History Santa Cruz Woodworkers’ show. Second is a “cricket”, a small trestle stool used as a foot stool, made of cherry and purpleheart.

And now for something completely different…

Always one who likes to try something new, my most recently completed piece is a white oak rush-seat stool with hand-carved faces on the tops of the four legs. Unlike the designs of my other stools that have a connection to historical sources (paintings, Victoria & Albert Museum, etc.), my rush-seat stool is completely original. It has a medieval look to it, and it’s really the rush weaving that might be considered historically based, since that style of seat has been around for centuries.

All parts, legs and rails, were hand turned by me on my Jet mini lathe. Before assembling it, I carved the medieval-style faces on the top corner of each leg. I had to learn how to weave the rush seat, so I did a lot of research before attempting it. Even after finishing the weave, I noticed errors on the last four or five runs and had to re-do it. It’s actually very comfortable to sit on.

And something else completely different…

Pictures. Pictures? Yes. For an upcoming show at the Santa Cruz Art League called “Small Wonders” (no pieces larger than 14” square), I created some 10” x 10” frames with some of my hand-carved faces attached to them. Some faces are wood, some are tagua nut.

There are several more pieces on my workbenches at various stages of progress that I hope to have completed soon. Check back later this month.

Onward…