A Whiter Shade of Pale: Part 2

The two instruments I'm making with the salvaged white oak are coming along nicely. I've started carving the peg head figures for the small epinette des Vosges, and I've put the second coat of tung oil on the small psaltery.

As I've mentioned before, the epinette is based on an original from 1850, and the psaltery is based on one depicted in the 12th century Spanish illuminated manuscript, Cantigas de Santa Maria.

My long-range plan is to make several of the stringed instruments in the Cantigas de Santa Maria, including some other styles of psalteries, some plucked and strummed instruments, and another of the small symphonies (early hurdy gurdy). Of course I'll be making more Mountain dulcimers (my first love), and some other dulcimer ancestors, like an 1850 Pennsylvania German scheitholt-style dulcimer, which is one I'm currently restoring. I took many pictures and measurements and recently drew up a set of plans so I can build one, probably after this year's show season.

More to come!

At our home, alongside the Monterey Bay, May is a month of opposites! The weather can be sunny, warm, and fragrant with the scent of flowers and blossoms one day, then foggy, cold, and windy, with only the scent of the heater and wood dust in my shop the next. I can be getting a lot of work done one day, then wondering where the time went and why I didn't seem to get anything done the next.

But in retrospect, I see a lot of new work on my walls and shelves.I completed four more mini-hog nose psalteries, so I have six to take to the Bellevue, San Francisco, and Sausalito shows later this summer.

I also completed another Germanic Rote, a lyre in the style of the 6th or 7th century one found in a warrior's grave somewhere in the Black Forest. It's of highly figured flamed maple (sometimes called tiger maple) and black walnut. The pegs are maple with doubled faces with square tops for a tuning key. I created a carved tuning key similar to ones used on old Saxon-style rotes. It also has two faces.

Because of the two faces on each peg and the tuning key, I call this piece "Janus". Janus was, in Roman mythology, the god of gates, doors, doorways, beginnings, and endings. He was always shown with two faces.

I've only seen one example of the Black Forest rote in old books, and the actual one was reported destroyed when the museum was bombed on World War II. The Saxon style of rote, on the other hand, has been found in many burial mounds in England, from the 1800s up to the most recent, the Prittlewell rote found in 2001. You can see both styles of rote on my web site at http://www.cooginstruments.com/Rotes.htm.

I have been carving quite a bit lately. Besides all the faces on

"Janus," I've been carving a lot of folk art pieces, mainly spoons and spurtles. These are all salvaged and scrap pieces of wood I can't use on musical instruments, but they are great for tasting and stirring implements. These are a few I just completed. There are around a dozen more on my workbench.

As you can see, even though I have days when I feel like nothing's getting done, things are getting done. Today, I voiced and put together five more pipes for my "Chapter House Portative Organ." I'm also getting ready to bend some wood for a new dulcimer, and carve more on my "Rebekulele," a combination of medieval rebec set up and played like a ukulele, an idea that came out of my fertile (some say rotting) mind last year.

Enough for now. It's late and I still need to play a little computer solitaire.

April Fool's has passed...

It's the beginning of the fourth month of the year, and I managed to get by the 1st without getting zinged by any April Fool's jokes. However, April still brings with it all the remodeling construction that's been going on around our house for the last month. Because of that, it's been hard to focus on many of my projects. However, I was able to finish three bowed psalteries last month as well as several "whistles" with hand-carved heads on the ends of them.

I've made a list this month of everything I want to work on and complete. It's probably a little too ambitious, but I have to plan out my creative direction as much as possible.

The first item on my list is to work on four more mini-hognose psalteries. That way I'll have six to take to Bellevue, Washington, in July and the San Francisco Fine Craft Show in August. The picture shows several frames I just assembled.

Mini-hognose psalteries are wonderful sounding small steel-strung lap or hand-held instruments that can play two full diatonic octaves, great for old ballads, folk music, or for just meditating to improvisational meanderings.The sound is bright but soothing.

Even though I completed several bowed psalteries, I still have to make the bows. I cut out seven bow blanks from cherry and salvaged purpleheart and zebrawood, and started shaping a couple of them today.

Another project I've listed is to continue working on one of my original pieces, the rebekulele. This is a 13th-14th century rebec-shaped instrument that's set up to play like a ukulele. It's coming along, but there's still a lot of carving to do on the tiki body.

As for folk art pieces, I'm in the process of shaping around 20 spoons and spurtles and getting them ready for carving.

All in all, I've got a lot of work to complete before I can get cracking on my larger, more complex projects. There is a lot more to come.

Stay tuned.