Luthiery is the art of making plucked and strummed stringed instruments, though some include the bowed strings in that category also. I started out many years ago making instruments in the foolish hope of finding work that would be appreciated for its usefulness. Like Flaubert, I was torn between a love of art and a yankee (or was it Scottish) inclination toward austerity and practicality. I thought luthiery would satisfy the drive to design and make things. This was a mistake, of course, because I put so much time into making them interesting that I could not possibly earn a living. I made a classical guitar and started a violin, but the predetermined form bored me. The dulcimers offered an opportunity to design more freely, and so I continue to make them once in a while. The latest in progress is related to the drawings from last summer of Verrocchio's putto fountain (June or July 2012). It will have a putto dancing on the peghead holding a small instrument instead of the dolphin. This will work well with the traditional heart-shaped sound holes.
These illustrated above are older instruments made many years ago. The Scottish Lion dulcimer was inspired by an incised image on a rock in Scotland from prehistoric times. The sound holes are drawn from the Scottish flag. The peghead, fingerboard, sides, and back are made of walnut wood, the pegs are rosewood, and the soundboard is Englemann spruce. I think I may have misspelled that. They are entirely make with handtools. The back is slightly bowed and the seam worked until you could not see a single ray of light through it when held together dry. The joint is invisible except that the grain suddenly turns into its mirror image. So the whole thing took 3 weeks to make working almost full-time. I seem to have a habit of seeking out labor intensive projects.
The Rascal is made with cherry with ebony pegs. The sound holes are oak leaves and the acorn contrasts a nice smooth surface with the rough fur of the squirrel rendered with the marks of the gouge. The squirrels eyes are ebonized along with the interior of the pegbox and the vertical edges of the soundholes. The finish on both of these instruments is French polish, another difficult and time-consuming process.
I ultimately opted for teaching as a way to contribute to civilization and earn a living. So now I can do as I wish when it comes to art without the need to earn a living by it. With such freedom, I chose to spend more time with 'fine art' and not the craft of luthiery. And now I need not consider the excessive time spent carving, building, drawing, painting, plucking strings, etc. except insofar as that simultaneous urge for utter simplicity wages war in my soul. Leonardo said "It should be our pleasure that our days be not squandered nor suffered to pass away in vain, and without meed of honour, leaving no record of themselves in the minds of men", and "I wish to work miracles." The desire to leave a mark, something to be remembered by that is deemed admirable, comes up against the understanding that such desire, among others, is the root of suffering. The Buddhist ideal is to leave this world with no evidence of your having been here. "There are no footprints in the sky." Perhaps that can wait for another lifetime.
