double-booked

Clayton Village Hall phoned today all embarassed - they had double-booked the 11th December. We had sold over 30 tickets already so are looking for another venue. If we don't find one we are re-arranging for Clayton in the New Year so I will keep you posted.

I am busy - again!!! I have again managed to confine all the harps into the music room but there are a few laid down like coffins taking up all the floor space. The trouble is that yesterday I had a 'gluing day'. I had an old Barometer to mend, a coffee table and 3 harps. I found a strip of oak that just fitted onto the forepillar of Mystic-Al. It had come off an old piano I had stripped for pegs etc last year. The pegs are going to be used in my version of small 'Cimbalas' - like a small zither that can sit on your lap but with harp strings - not wire ones. I have 4 old drawers from an old wardrobe. They are labelled 'gloves' and 'socks'!

That is my next project. I am being asked to go into more and more Schools which I love. I am booked as a 'birthday' surprise for a local Special Needs School.

I have glued a pupil's harp - the soundboard had popped off after it was left by a window in full sunlight whilst they were on holiday ... whoops ... not a good idea. Fingers crossed for me that the glue is strong enough!

The other harp had to be 'paper mached'. The new quad design gives a slightly wider neck at the top of the soundboard so I am left with a few gaps to fill. The expanding glue was a near-disaster so a new method was needed. Fingers crossed again please!!!