#handmade instruments

Finished my handmade hiiu kannel / jouhikko / talharpa!

Started working on it sometime last spring and finally got to the point of stringing it today! No power tools were used (at least, after I bought the wood... I’m sure the boards were cut with power saws lol). Just hand saws, hand drill and reamer, hand planes and rasps, knife, files, and sandpaper. 

(It did not actually take 8+ months of work; it was very sporadic, due to waiting for various materials and waiting for my wrist to heal after I fucked it up hand-sawing two inches of hard maple into the proper shape, then rinse and repeat a couple times.)

(Also, I should note that I roughly followed plans and instructions from Michael J. King, and I can recommend those as being very helpful!)

Materials: the body is hard maple, the backboard is black walnut, the soundboard, bassboard, and soundpost are spruce, the endpin is antler, the tailpiece is ash wood, and the bridge is cherrywood. Strings are black mongolian horsehair. The bow is... a curved stick of mystery wood that @schaudwen​ found for me, which I steamed and bent a little more XD Also strung with horsehair. The pegs and fine-tuners are storebought violin parts. Finish is black walnut danish oil for everything but the tailpiece and bridge. The bridge is bare wood, and for the tailpiece, I used a woodburning pen to draw on some Urnes-style decoration before simply varnishing it. 

I learned so much in the process of making this instrument, and I absolutely love how rustic-looking it came out. I feel like you wouldn’t look a bit out of place chilling in the northern woods a thousand years ago playing this thing. XD

Adult Content..... ----->

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwqw__Aue7A&list=PLzz_sgB_OB1X-7g44YKICnfDFHCV0o31R

Plastic Seeds (Ceramic Petals) (2022)

I’m Busy, Sorry (2022)

Treasure Hunt (Find a Little Prince) (2022)

Netting (2022)

Bundles (2022)

Baby’s Breath (2022) 

ARTIST STATEMENT

Within the series I playfully explore human relationships with contradictory feelings, that develop during relationships in a tongue and cheek manner. The concepts of age, misperception, feelings of being trapped, and relationships with consumption are played with.

A series of handmade instruments were experimented with, that engage the ideas of false flags, consideration of role play before actual action, and darkly humorous combinations of materials. A dog filled with wood pieces, that is cop, is posed alongside fake rape blossoms, with a red star and Christmas bells. The wood that rattles in the head of the kids toy, plays with an idea of what turns a person on being misinterpreted as dangerous and sick. The toy rabbit, tied inside of a tin can, is filled with beads that appear like sand. This plays with the idea, of people freaking out, slowly being lulled to sleep by a sound that like a tv put on the fuzz, despite feeling trapped by the screaming. This plays with feelings of sexuality, harassment and appeasement visually and sonically. As the symbolically playful reference to the female, being trapped, but then lulled into a rhythmic tranquility that is musical. 

Within Plastic Seeds (Ceramic Petals), wandering and eventually figuring out where things are going, within a train of thought, introduces the series. 

Within I’m Busy, Sorry, the concept of being too busy, studying and dating, to attend events, is playfully approached regarding why she secretly prefers a particular type of meat, making a phallic reference as a pun. 

In Treasure Hunt (Find a Little Prince), the idea of wanting to get feelings absorbed by males out of a person, not being appealing, to the person engaged, is then explored as the regions criticized as being in need to liposuction become fetishized in private, with the critic being a false flag of needing help. In reality, the critic turns into solutions of motive to remove feelings of sorrow and depression, that psychically playfully results in cutting away, allowing continuous relationships, that are not approved of entirely due to rational causes of conflicts, but they are interesting nonetheless. The title references the little emperor syndrome to little prince, dealing with cross cultural issues between French and Asian cultures, and sexuality, with political puns connected being visually evident. This deals with differences in cultural backgrounds, bodies and feelings, and rationality, within relationships.

Netted, plays with pop birth control, in a fun and playful manner. Concluding the feelings about what is being made, what keeps things fun, and contradictory feelings that develop from resentment, that then are what make things brilliant and fun. 

Tasos Stamou investigates Greek music, with electro acoustic works. These combine handmade electronic instruments, analogue electronic materials, and computer generated compositions, with antique folk instruments and voices. This creates a compelling sound from approaching the historical, deconstructing it, and creating a new form out of this framework. Free improvisation, links between compositions deceived from Greek musical traditions, breathing new life into them. The use of ambient and electronic sounds, result in a beautifully constructed sound.

Thinking about sounds, forms, and objects in relation to their shaoes, their origins, and their use as suggestive sonically. 

Ie; the sound of tied coins - suggestion of rattling money

A screw and a nail in relation to a building - pointed, triangle... softened or harden block or thin bottle

Bottle caps - soft, rattling.... very soft... 

A key in relation to a door - scratchy. rattle...

A helium canister, and a balloon from a party.... - softened, rounded...

Lots to explore, sonically... and suggest.