back to my stranges paintings, "The Trip-Tick"

These 3 small paintings (1mx1m each) represent 3 differents rights of passage,the first one (in the  blue)is the right of passage from childhood to adulthood (i call it "women,chicken and soup),the second painting (in orange) is about livehood, ( i call it "a monkey on your back") and the 3rd.painting is about the passage from life to death (i call it " taking the ride")...as you see I'm an artist, not a photografer, I should learn next to take better photos of my art work...

Sapek kalimantan

On a recent trip to Kalimantan (borneo),I dicover a primitive instrument called a Sapek,or Sape depending of the region they are from.The voice of the Sapek has drone to follow the melody. At my return I had of course to build one,but instead of using the removable fret system,I use metal frets like a dulcimer,it is producing at least a sound in tune.The Sapek is normally carved out of one piece of wood.I construct my sapek with the same technics of the modern guitar, with sounds bracings and a spruce top,the sides and back are Mohogany.It is amplified with a simple piezzo microphone under the bridge.The sides are carved with sort of primitive designs,but they are actually my designs,The eagle head on the pegboard is to remember myself of this wonderfull trip in Kalimanta

My new bass guitar like instrument

This bass like instrument is made off mohogany back and sides,cedar top.It  this a shorter scale than a normal bass guitar,and stringed with Cello strings,thus tuned like a 1/2 size cello ,it produce a smooth sound similar than a jazz guitar.
The gargoyle carving on the tunning pegs head is a design from the cathedral of Reims (France),it took me about 2 months to build.

The Epinette

This is the latest instrument I build.The Epinette is the ancestor of the American Apalachian Dulcim
er.It has a diatonic fret board.This particular design is inspired by the 15th century style.I love the cherish the time spent in carving the Gargoyle head.The wood of the body is Mohogany and I use pear wood for the sound board.

Gitbri #2

This instrument has more of a bass accoustic guitar, I install the braces inside just like the "Gretch Bass Guitar" and it gives me a smooth sweat sounds.The top is cedar, the back and sides Mohogany.it has a 30 1/2 inch scale

what is a GitBri?

I recently made an instrument deriving from the African "GEMBRI" but I call it a GitBri because instead of a raw hide skin , i give it a wood (cedar sound board)..I'm still trying to find the right string for it. So far I try D'addario smooth smooth short bass string...this instrument is still a research project

making a new top for an old arabic guitar

A friend of mine, asked me to restore his "arabic " guitar,instead of restoring it I had to re-make a new top,following the exact brace patterns like the original fan brace.I inlayed the pick guard instead of just glueing it like previously done. The rosette is the original rosette (even though, I think this rosette was already a replacement because it is a modern lazer cut rosette ?) fun fun fun...