Three More Ukes

After building the first uke earlier this year, I decided to build a few more. And as more than half the time in building a uke is lost in settings up the machines, it's not really that much harder to build more than one at a time - so I decided to build three. One if for my father for his birthday - the first one in the photo, with back and sides of zebrawood. The second one is for me, with curly maple back and sides. And the last one is cherry - but I haven't decided what to do with it yet. I think a tenor size is up next - these things are just too much fun to build!

Sketches

As a teenager I used to sketch a lot, but not really at all since. But lately I've been thinking about starting again. On our trip - and since then, too - I've been sketching in a little pocket-sized notebook. Below are a few recent sketches - two are buildings near our hotel in La Jolla, and the last is a plant in our living room.




Sketch Box

Before our trip I made myself this little sketch box so I could sketch while walking around town. It's made from black walnut and has room for a pencil, pen, and waterbrush in the top section, and a set of whittled-down sections of watercolor pencil in the bottom half - which is a lot easier than carting around a whole full-size set of pencils. Turned out to be pretty useful, too.

Carter’s Box Car

Check out the car Carter made out of a box! She decorated it and 'drove' it around the house all day. At one point she even put a stuffed animal in it and gave it a ride around.

Ukulele Hanger

I saw a cool ukulele wall hanger online a week or so ago and made up my own version to hang the uke on the wall. It came out pretty cool, I think. I made another for my dad, as well. On a related note, I moved the bridge on the uke I built and now the intonation is perfect! It's been a couple of weeks and the top is starting to open up as it breaks in - it sounds great! The only problem I've still got is a couple of buzzing notes from two frets that are too high and need to be filed down - but I think I'll wait until next time I have to change the strings anyway before I bother fixing them.

Ukulele – Done, Sort Of

Well, the ukulele is all finished - ain't she a beaut? Unfortunately, there was a typo in the book I was building from and the scale length is wrong - which means I will somehow need to get the bridge off and glued back on 2.5 cm further back. Otherwise it just won't sound quite right. But before I tackle that - which has a decent chance of not coming out that well, at least visually - I wanted to get some good photos of it while it was still looking good.

Buried in Snow

We were only forecast to get 3-5 inches of snow - and instead woke up to over a foot this morning. While playing outside I buried each of the kids to their armpits in snow. They claim it was quite cozy - like a thick heavy blanket.

Cherry Shelves

Finally finished the shelves that I have been working on in parallel with the uke. They really help round out the living room. Now we just need to find some decorative stuff to put on them. :)