building harps

Well the race building harps continues. Thought I had got nothing done yesterday as it took so long to saw the top of the soundbox into exactly the right shape and get some massive bolts in to hold it to the head. My arm was aching badly by the end of it all! This is why I don't want to make any more harps after the next 3 (all re-builds so not as bad). None of my friends believe me but honestly it is hard work. I will still have to repair harps, string them and would love to decorate them still but no more jigsaws and clamps!

I am googling away trying to find an image of an owl to use on Mystic-Al. My last harp (Celesti-Al) I found a poem on a 15th lute. It reads 'I was silent in the woods, cut down by the cruel axe but in death I sweetly sing'. I copied the poem in latin on one side and english on the other and painted 2 trees at the bottom. Mystic-Al has a reinforced forepillar, made out of an old bed frame, and I came across an oak leaf carving in the wood pile which I think had come off an old piano I was stripping. The oak leaf just covers the join perfectly and above it will be the owl.

The Yorkshire Symphony preview is on Wednesday this week and I am trying to find a time for another interview on Radio Leeds.