Sunday, March 31, 2013

Indian fabric printing block



For the edges, I'm going to reproduce something that caught my attention while doing the Taprons (Tapir Caper 3) - Indian fabric printing blocks. Thank you Holly and Larry for the block. I really like it and am still amazed as these blocks were hand carved! Such craft, such dexterity. I'm producing ribbons of the pattern and then wrap them around the boxes. Pencil crayon seems to add a bit of 'soft antiquity'.



Priming

Before I get down to decoration I'll prime the boxes. One coat for now - I'll sand later, maybe add another, better coat of paint. Hope this paint doesn't muffle the sound ..... guess I should have tested this first, but the train's rolling and I can't stop it now. Just 28 days to go!

Friday, March 22, 2013

From boxes to kalimbas

Kalimbas ready for decoration. Now for the fun part!

Dowels

The dowels are going to give the base for the tines. The third dowel screwed down between the two base dowels, will provide the 'spring' and 'tone' to the tines.



Date Stamp

Another one of those 'better-remember-before-I-glue-this-all-together' things. It would be great to be able to see something through the sound hole. I settled on a 'date stamp'. Something that will fix all this nonsense to a moment in time. And it's circular!


Sound Holes

Once you've got the support glued underneath the lid it's time for the sound hole. Just have to remember to drill the hole at the opposite at the opposite end of the support.


Gotta get that support in!

First job (after removing the hinges, clasps etc.) is to glue a strip of wood just inside the lid - this will be the end of the box that will support the tines. This small strip of wood give the screws something to bite into …. so, so, necessary as there will be a whole lot of tension created by the spring of the tines. I'm only writing this 'cos if you don't remember to do this at this stage you can't go back and fix it ….. you'll have to throw it in the trash.


Different shapes and sizes

Searches at multiple dollar stores gave me 27 boxes, but not all the same size or shape. Even found an hexagonal one! I wonder how the sound will be affected by the size ….. can you get an hexagonal sound? Does sound have shape?



Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Not everything works


For the longest time I looked for a small inexpensive 'sound box' something that I could get 30 of  fairly easily. A search online led me to sites that would supply small wooden boxes but only if I ordered a thousand. Then one Saturday lunchtime we had sardines on toast for lunch. I was washing out the tin when I thought that the tin just needed a cover (preferably wood) and I would have a cheap sound container.




After washing out the tins carefully (no one wants a smelly kalimba right?) I got hold of sheets of birch laminate. The type that has adhesive on the back. I was able to use the point of an iron to heat/glue the wood into place. A hole was drilled, dowels were glued in place, tines were fixed …… and then, and then ……. nothing. 



The tone was awful … kind of tinny - excuse the pun. I guess there wasn't enough space in the tin for the sound. Anyway, goes to show not all things work. A phrase comes to mind …. "He who can't make a mistake, can't make anything." Yeah, let's go with that, 'cos I make lot's of mistakes.