Birds

Perched about the workshop are a number of birds, the latest arrivals being some owls. Alf-Inge (also a violinmaker) has been a bird watcher for many years, and when he can't get out in the countryside to spy on them with his binoculars then he has to make do with carving and painting them - rather beautifully as you can see. There is a little mixed flock of them up in the shop at the castle for sale. The picture above shows two unpainted "juveniles" and the final adult result is displayed below together with a Norwegian hardingfele (hardangar violin) built by Alf-Inge's father.

Kora

I'm going to build a Kora (a lute/harp from west Africa with about 22 strings). It's going to be a very challenging project since it is so exotic in these parts but I'm just going to go ahead and try and learn as much as I can in process.

A calabash with my name on it. At least my initial, which I take to be a very good sign, although it won't be visible once I've fastened the skin on it.

Skins from Senegal. I got an extra one so that I can make a little drum too, one day.

What I've been working on today: a graph of string length against pitch, so that I can plan how to build the neck.
If you watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrEPm04v9Mk&feature=related you might understand why I want to do this.

A visit to the National Swedish Handicraft Council

Upstairs in our house is the West Götaland Regional Office of the National Swedish Handicraft Council, which is a fancy name for bunch of very lovely people who help out with all manner of exciting handwork projects. Their offices are filled with colourful creations and it is very inspiring to go up there. For some reason that doesn't happen too often for me but today I needed a little advice on my next project. They showed me a Sami drum made from a reindeer skin and a tool used for preparing the hide. http://www.hemslojd.se/