Dreamharp Final Day

The day started nice and cool.  A far cry from the previous two days.  My first job on the dreamharp this morning was sanding.  I hand to hand sand out all the machine marks and scratches from when the edges were rounded.  This took quite a lot of sanding but I managed to get through it. 

It was interesting.  As I was sanding I remembered a TV show I used to watch; NCIS (the original) .  In this show the boss of the team hides away in his basement sanding away at the ribs of a boat he is making.  People always comment on his lack of progress and how he is always sanding.  I understand why now.  It is very therapeutic.  I started closing my eyes, and started to feel the wood for the first time.  It was beautiful and smooth, almost soft to the touch.  My fingertips would then find a small imperfection that needed sanding out.  It may not have been visible then, but it would be when I waxed it. 

In this photo you can see the marks I had to remove.  One minute they were there ...

... a few minutes later they were gone!

Before oiling we needed to burn in the notes that each string would be.  You could also be a little more creative and something that the last 3 days had meant to you.  I felt that I had found a little more of myself.  It is amazing how much you can learn when you are playing with wood.

Nis said I had to have a photo of myself doing something to prove that I actually did make the thing.  By the way ladies, my apologies, Nis is only 61, not 63.

Here I am adding the oil, then using wet and dry sandpaper on certain areas to open up the pores, and then rubbing of the excess with a cloth.  We do two layers.  This needs a couple of hours to dry fully, so ...

... we hopped in the car and went for a well deserved swim at this beach.  OMG it was so beautiful and barely anyone around.  Not telling where it is though.  When I want to go, I want to keep it nice and quiet.

Back at the studio, this is the oiled product, now we had to wax it.  Wax on, wax off.

The pins are in place for me to add the string (they did get more level).  Stringing is actually quite hard.  Probably the hardest part really.

The final piece:  my dreamharp.  The sound is beautiful, the vibrations coming from it are soothing to the touch, words can not describe what it feels like to play one of these.  I mean really play.   We sat out in Nis' garden and played.  I closed my eyes, listened to the birds in the trees and the wind in the leaves, and just played what came naturally.  It was so peaceful.  That is what I wanted from my harp.