I don’t like doing CPs - but for those whistlers in Oz this might be interesting:
Oz Whistles will be at the Australian National Folk Festival in Canberra during Easter (April 2 to 6),
located in the Quocka building with the instrument-makers’ displays.
The build request book for Vambrace whistles is still closed - however, I am able to present a few “off-book” whistles in the vambrace design. These are whistles I have made using woods that are not part of the standard offering - whistles I just wanted to make out of curiosity and the sheer enjoyment of it.
Some will be for sale, some are exhibit-only.
If you can make it to the fest, I’d be delighted for you to try them out - it is always a great joy to watch players try the whistles - and I never tire of the insight it reveals.
Hope you’re faring the storms over there?
Still got those lovely whistles you made for me, the Cooktown ironwood, and the two Masur birch whistles in D and C. The Masur birch was a trial wood and as you put it “not a standard offering”, the C is to date still the best sounding and playable whistle I have in my collection. It is my favourite whistle. The Masur whistles have warped a little, but it doesn’t matter to me, it actually gives them character and a story to tell. I wonder if they would have warped if they had remained in an Australian climate? What happened to the others that you made?
Yes .. sadly, masurbjork tends to move about with age.
It is an intensely beautiful wood - which is why the Tzars used it to wood-panel their opulent dachas(?) in great veneers - it goes well with gold leaf.
I had hoped that total saturation in nitro-cellulose would stabilise it, but wood has power over time that is not easily overcome.
All that said - the masurbjork is arranged in cells that usually cancel-out major warping .. it tends to “dimple” .. which can add an interesting texture .. and a sense of graceful age. I kinda like that .. the journey through time is as much a part of the art as the static origin ..
So long as none of those “dimples” occurs on a major node or anti-node, the performance of the whistle will not be affected.
It’s a bit of a dice-roll - and for that reason, I will not be using it for whistles again. Maybe if I ever make pens or sword-handles ..
As an aside - I found the National Folk Festival to be somewhat disappointing.. As these events get larger, they tend to drift in the direction of glorified pop-concerts , all the right people were there .. but the social framework was obliterated by monetary economy and the state.
On the hopeful side - the St Albans Folk festival was flooded-out for the first time in 50 years. This was kind of good, because all the “right-people” contrived to turn it all into an extended session in the next-town-along. Resulting in one of the best fests I’ve attended.
Truly - climate change is at the service of the “right-people”. In the climate-induced collapse of Feudal-corporate-monetary-economy and the central-nation-state - community erupts instantly!
I am so glad that whistlers are part of the “right people”!