They are all from reclaimed, recycled materials and found objects. The first few didn’t open for cleaning… but after getting that question enough, I have started making them accessible. It adds a bit of time to the process as each solution is different and I don’t want to go and buy a bunch of hinges and clasps. I am trying to keep the materials costs as close to zero as possible.

They are all designed for either sparrows or finches, small birds that like small holes.

In the photos you can see the 9 plants, (there are 3 more in the front of the house) when they were young. They are now taller than me, but laying over and venturing out into the rest of the neighborhood. Even with tomato cages in place, I have had to put in tall spikes for them to be tied to. And the resulting web of twine is its own matrix. A tomato matrix. A tomatrix. (That one goes out to Teressa.)

I made the fencing on the beds from wood we found buried under a big pile of lawn debris left by previous tenants. The point was to keep our dog, Guido, from getting all mixed up in there. But we also needed to get in there ourselves to weed etc. so I made cross bars removable.

Also from the found wood, I made this compost bin. We are pretty excited about that. It is nice and big and composting is very satisfying. We generate alot of food waste when we process veggies for chutnies and soups and potato gratins and whatnot. And instead of pitching it into the garbage and getting an awful smell, we dump it in the compost bin and throw a shovel full of dirt on it and return all the nutrients we didn’t eat to the soil for next year and the year after that and so on.

In the photo of the side of the house you can see the spirea, (I love that plant.) and the mint and where we put up a simple fence around the wild flower seed beds. And the others are of the front yard. There was quite a bit of lavender and rosemary and some sage, oregeno and thyme existing when we moved in. I love that stuff. Lots of yellowjackets buzzing about. They love it too. The roses over against the fence struggled earlier this summer with some spots but Teressa has taken good  care of them and helped them out alot. She also planted some calendula seeds in the front too, near the tomatoes. Perhaps the most dynamic growers are the squash plants. These photos are from before the planting of the beans. They are just now starting to mature.

Click the smaller image for a larger view. Grin.

The weather was incredible this weekend so I propped the shop doors open and spent some hours on a Classical Cigar Box Guitar. As usual, I am not finished with this project but am too excited to wait to post it.

Of note, the scale length dictated the placement of the bridge just at the back edge of the box. I originally used a hinge for several reasons; 1. I didn’t want to drill through the top of the box and, 2. it gold color doesn’t hurt the design. The saddle would have floated in the dado-cut channel. This will ensure that it will not slip forward or back, but will let the tension of the srtings center itself/themselves over the neck, in case it is a bit crooked. (After stringing the instrument I found that I mis-measured the action and the strings sailed like telephone cables over the neck! So I have installed a different bridge, but have no pics of it yet.)

Then there is a 3-holed hinge coming from the back of the box which will serve as the tailpiece, 2 strings through each hole.

I cut a peice of wood to attach to the bottom, shaped like the bottom half of a classical guitar. Funny design nod, and functional in that it will provide a place to nestle on one’s knee. (I got this idea from seeing a Johnny Lowebow piece at the Deep Blues Festival this summer. His stuff is amazing.)

Hey there!
Yesterday I etched the control plate for the Suitcase Bass.

All traditional intaglio process, 1. Cleaned and prepped the brass plate. 2. Put a soft ground on it. (Some kid of tar, brushed on, then cooked.) 3. Hours of carving the ground off. 4. Then 1 hour and 24 minutes in ferric nitrate. 5. Rinsed, cleaned with a solvent and a toothbrush. 6. Viola! (Or rather, Bass!)

I am going to carve the ground of the neck plate this weekend and etch that plate on Monday. I decided not to etch the plate that is on the bottom of the bass where the jack and the foot collar are. The bottom of the bass sees the most abuse, and is rarely seen anyway.

I chose to completely open up the brass on the neck plate, allowing a field of etch to occur, hoping for a more “yes/no” effect, and not so many little lines. I am not worried about the 2 plates being different. The whole bass is an ongoing education, so it seems appropriate that it evolve. For some reason the brass did not etch evenly, and it turns out that I prefer the other method of mark making… I am really enthused about this process though, so I will continue to experiment with future projects and maybe revisit the bass brass. This scanned image does not do the plate justice. Over all a thumbs-up!

Other on-going bass related things; I am still planning to expand the micing options by installing a condenser mic, and maybe some K&K transducers.

Where this one gets really wierd is that I am trying to set this one up like a mandolin in that the strings are doubled up. But, where a mandolin has 4 sets of two strings, this instrument will have only 3 sets of two strings. (The number three we have seen on my other instruments has several origins. 1. Lately it has been hardware-driven. I am deliberately using found and recycled objects, and hinges, which very often have 2 holes on one plate and 3 on the other, make great tail-pieces - strong and flexible, decorative or funky. And 2. Three is a magic number. It is just enough to offer variety in tunings. And composing with “3″ makes for nice triangles. A bit esoteric maybe. Ask me about it over a drink sometime…) ANYWAY, this makes for a challenge in that the nutt and the bridge will have to be very finely and patiently crafted.

The sound, as you might guess?, is tinny. And I may have to make the leap into fretted fingerboards to get this one to play well enough.

Please continue to learn about this project here—>
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