Day 144, and I’m finally done with the guqin project. On one, I used modern steel/nylon strings, and on the other, I used silk strings. They sound very different, and I’m pleased with how both instruments turned out. Now, I have to try the pick-up system in the jiaoye guqin…
Guqin construction has been extremely slow. I carved out the peg pool last week. I also started cutting the holes for the feet. First, I drilled pilot holes. Then, I have to convert the round holes into square ones, which is why it’s taking so much longer. This afternoon, I…
This evening, I reached another milestone in guqin-making. For the bottom panel, I had roughly cut out the outlines on a maple board with a jigsaw and finished the finer cuts with a router. Then, I finished carving out the inside. Now, the top and bottom pieces fit nicely together.…
Today was a milestone in the guqin-making endeavor. After preliminarily hollowing out the inside of the top, I sanded the concavity. Then, I cut around the entire outline of one of the guqin and freed it from the original board. The next step is to plane and sand the convex…
For the last month, I’ve been practicing the guqin 古琴 a little more. In time for the Prunus mume that opened and faded, I finished learning 梅花三弄 (Three Variations on the Plum Blossom). Now, I’m working on 流水 (Flowing Water), which is significantly more difficult. Anyways, I got inspired to…
After several months of work, the pond is finally done and filled to the right level. Everything seems to be working well. The only thing left to do is to perfect the level mechanism to autofill and to finish some of the edging detail where there is exposed liner.
Today, the high was 106 degrees F. Anyhow, it was a day for outdoor work, wrestling boulders into place around the pond. The depression had been excavated already, and months ago, I helped my dad with a homemade water level to figure out the elevation of the entire perimeter. After…
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