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| TLDR: Here's my progress so far. |
It's just a bit slow going at this point.
After I tied the collar loosely around the neck, I added 47 pairs of strings to it on which to connect the beads to. 47 pairs means that every row of beads will consist of 94 separate beads. And 47 knots to tie.
So far I've completed eight rows, which means I've used almost 800 of my 1800 beads that I purchased for this project. It could be that I don't have enough and might have to order some more.
The good news is I like the pattern that is emerging. It should be done in a week or so, as long as I'm able to keep up my pace of at least one row per day.
At one point, I realized that I messed up my pattern without knowing, and it took a while to undo about seven or eight knots to correct the problem. That, and about an hour's waisted time.
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| At one point I realized that I messed up my pattern, and had to undo some knots in order to correct the problem. |
There are some beads here that look a bit uneven. It takes a while to get the hang of how tight or loose to tie the knots. The more consistent it can be done, the better it looks. This one will not look perfect, but it should sound great. That, and it will look a bit more hand-made.
Wish me luck for the rest of the beads!
Brian--I'm so glad I found your blog. I'm just starting my first shekere, And hope you don't mind my asking questions. My gourd is much like yours--from a farm in Georgia (US). It has small defects on the bottom--3 small chips/holes in the surface (2 or 3 mm wide), and a couple of small raised bumps that I don't expect will bother me, so I don't feel any need to scrape them down. I'm not sure what you meant by "tear out" but I'm thinking, for strength and integrity I should fill those little pits with epoxy--? Or maybe the shellac and linseed oil is enough?? And I also wonder if that coating affected the sound in any way you noticed. It sounded like a lot of layers. I'm thinking the coating may mostly be for looks?
ReplyDeleteHave you been happy with your instrument? Is there anything you would have done differently?
Thank you!
Kathy J.
Hi Kathy, thanks for your comment! You've reminded me that I have to post the final result of this build.
ReplyDeleteDon't worry much about the finish I used. It was a lot of very thin coats, very similar to a French polish on a guitar. You don't have to go through all that.
If you use epoxy, and I don't think you need to, use something high quality like West Systems. It's probably not worth it.
I'd love to hear how it turns out. Cheers!