Bone Folders

Amy attended a workshop today taught by Julie Chen. It was a big deal, as Julie Chen's work inspired her to become a book artist. As a special gift, I made Amy a pair of ebony bone folders to use. Here are some photographs documenting the process.















































The box was made with found wood. Bone folders are made of ebony with pearl inlay. The second bone folder specially shaped to aid in box making.

Southern Lights

This blog was mentioned in an article in the Tuscaloosa News Sunday.

Thanks, Ben.

bindings

Last week I inlaid ebony into the pot and installed a walnut cap. After gluing the Walnut cap, it was time to install the fingerboard binding. As I held the plastic binding in my hand, I thought, I can't install this. I can't put this on the fingerboard. It's plastic, and the reason why I enjoy building is to move away from plastic...in many different ways.

Every time I look around I see plastic. Things that look to be what they are not. Cheapness disguised as the genuine article. That little piece of plastic binding that I held in my hand became a lot more to me than something to hide the tang of the frets.





I cut a few small strips from a piece of walnut.







I put the strips in a bucket of water to soak, then looked around for a heat source to make a bending pipe. I dug up an electric camping stove and attached a pipe to it with wire.







I made a metal bending strap from a clamp used on the gluing form for the pot.







Bent the sides carefully and glued them to the fingerboard. The tape holds the binding in place as the glue sets.





And here we are, walnut binding on the fretboard. It makes me feel better to get away from the plastic. Hopefully that is the direction that I am personally moving as well.

Working on It

Snow Day

Not only have I begun to feel Spring in my bones, I have also begun to see it on the trees. Tell tale white flowers forming on the pear tree in the back yard, the slightly perceptible pink just beginning to bud on the peach tree.

And then today, Mother Nature's last hurrah. The raised bed garden, almost finished, rests silently under a blue tarp. The signs of my work lay as remnants in the yard. Scaffolding lay dormant on the porch, springtime painting only just begun.

















This is the first snow in 9 years, and the heaviest snow since the early or mid 1990's.










All is silent. The tools and the work lay quietly for the day. This is winter's final moment. Inhale, exhale, then greet the Spring.