Scrap-Pile Ukes (IW#'s 106 - 111)

Photo (c) 2019 Kevin Cwalina


I just got back from teaching a workshop at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts for a week.  We were scratch-building ukuleles from my scrap pile (more on that in another post).  In preparation for this uke-stravagansa I made several before I went.  In part so that the participants could see what their finished product might look and sound like, and in part so that I could refine my process into something that i could teach in a week.  So I ended up with a bunch of instruments, which was great. 

All of these have been made since January 01 2019, and they all came out of the scrap pile, so they are made out of all different kinds of woods.  I'll call them out individually below.  I sold a bunch before I could make videos of each of them, but they all sound pretty good.

It has been an interesting trip making so many of them.  There is not a lot of wood in each one, so the scrap pile is a good place to look for lumber for these.  I am interested in doing another production run soon, now that i have a real system laid out.  It's a good way to clear out some of the off-cuts and small bits and bobs that are left over from previous projects, and in fact one of the side effects of doing this was that I was able to remember and revisit old projects and remember people and places that I had not thought of in a while.  Sort of like looking through an old photo album, back when we kept photo albums. 

Ok.  Here is a breakdown of all of the instruments above.

Photo (c) 2019 Kevin Cwalina
IW#106:  Reynolda House Poplar Uke


The Reynolda House Museum of American Art is housed in a 1913 "bungalow" built by Richard Joshua Reynolds in Winston-Salem, NC.  I grew up spending a lot of time there, since my mother was in the Education Department.  Some of the first installational community sculptures that I ever made were for events there when I was in college, and I learned to shoot pool on the huge, beautiful pool table in the basement.  The balls were actual elephant ivory, since they dated to when the house was built.  I had no idea how lucky I was, or how strange this was as a way to grow up.

Photo (c) 2019 Kevin Cwalina
About a decade ago some trees were cleared to make more parking, and through the auspices of my mom I got my hands on a little chunk of a poplar tree that was lumbered up.  I used some of it for another project, but had enough scraps to make this little uke.











Photo (c) 2019 Kevin Cwalina
IW#107:  Church Pew Uke

South Presbyterian Church, built in 1906 here in Syracuse, is a huge and gorgeous church.  Until they were removed a few years ago, it held the tallest Tiffany windows in the country.  A few years ago the congregation was trying to figure out how to keep it going, and they took out some of the pews.  They gave a couple of them to me, and it was lovely red oak.  Huge and heavy, I used a bunch of it for a project but still have some.  It made a bright little uke.  The top is piano wood of course.






Photo (c) 2019 Kevin Cwalina

Photo (c) 2019 Kevin Cwalina
IW#108:  Poplar Baritone Uke

Another baritone uke made out of piano wood.  I like the way that the green of the poplar fades up the sides and then shifts to the white sap wood.  This wood will mellow over the coming decades into a darker and lighter brown, but the fade will endure which I dig.  This one is all piano wood, but there are a couple of pianos in there.  I forget which.



 
Photo (c) 2019 Kevin Cwalina
IW#109:  Spanish Walnut Uke

The father of a friend of mine took a one-year sabbatical and took his entire family camping all around the world.  Guatemala, Turkey, the Mediterranean, truly all over.  My friend was five or six at the time but still has a ton of memories about the trip.  It was pretty epic.  I think this was in the 1960's or 1970's.  One of the items that the family bought and had shipped back was this huge wooden chest with hand-wrought hardware, which sat in his house all the time he was growing up.

By the time I met him and we started hanging out, the chest had been sitting out side and was falling apart, so he gave me the wood (of course.  This happens a lot in my life).  When I planed it down, however, it was the loveliest and hardest walnut I have ever worked with.  It is not open-pored like American black walnut that I have worked, it is hard like maple, though it is obviously walnut.  Just gorgeous. 

It has a bright sound, since the wood is so hard, and the finish is Tru-Oil, which gives it a little sheen.

Photo (c) 2019 Kevin Cwalina
IW#110 + IW#111:  Northwestern Cedar Uke and Tenor Uke

A friend gifted me a huge hunk of northwestern Cedar, and there was this little chunk sticking off of the end.  It made it hard to stand up the chunk of wood and it kept falling over, so I split it off.  It was just the right size to get a tenor uke and a soprano uke out of.  The top, back, and sides as well as the neck are all cedar, and they have a nice mellow sound.  There is something that I really like when the whole uke is the same wood.  It's very visually pleasing.




Here is a photo of them all standing at attention.  All photos for this post are by the inimitable Kevin Cwalina.  More on him in a future post as well.  Good looking family of instruments:

Photo (c) 2019 Kevin Cwalina

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