Gluing the Laurel and Hardy way

It took a whole week to get the glue off my hands! I am making my new 'Elizabethan' harp, Mystical, with 4 sets of strings which means it will have a luted soundboard and therefore a different design. I started joining the top of the soundbox to the 'neck' of the harp and discovered a problem ... screws and drillbits are just not long enough. I tried to buy some - must be very specialist as the local DIY shop couldn't help. Nevermind I thought - I will use some of that expanding glue.....arghhhhhhh....(as it turned out).

The plastic container of glue had been put deliberately to the back of the cupboard after the last attempt. It sets so fast that I could feel that the top half was solid, but, if I sawed the bottle in half (I am impossibly practical - 'waste not, want not'). I thought I was prepared - a metal tray, old honey jar at hand to pour it into, masking tape and plastic stuck all over the harp, newspaper on the floor, etc etc.

Two hours later it had finally set hard and I had finished scraping all the 'runs' off the harp and had trimmed my hair from its new fashion of 'christmas-tree-like' baubles. It burst straight through the masking tape, managed to fill the tray and expand to the table and all attempts at keeping my hands clean were futile. ... BUT ... it did solve the problem ... however ... do I do this again or can a better method be found?

A Symphony for Yorkshire

Well, we just heard it full blast on the computer (where everything is heard these days)! I am looking forward to actually seeing it again next week - Benjamin Till has huge creativity and sensitivity, not just for music and his ability to include a whole multitude of musicians and make them feel special - but wait till you see what he does with directing a camera ... You will see a steam train puffing in time to the music - done in one take apparantly! A beautiful girl with such a sense of fun blowing through her thumbs in perfect tune - on top of a bus! a surf board dancing in the middle of Sheffield .... Everytime you will see something different.

Things are tough for a lot of people out there at the moment, we are hanging on by a thread it seems but this will make you want to dance!!!! Looking forward to watching it next week - see you there!!!!