My latest painting "between two worlds"and a sculpture "brain an beauty"

Between 2 worlds

My representation of life and death...not in a negative way but rather in a real meaning of life as everything has a beginning and a end..

Sculpture (wood)

Not much to say here...I called it "brain and beauty"

Here are some photo's of my new "MELOCHORD" in process. I have been working on it for the last month...and its slowly getting there. It will have many new features: Rosewood body and sides, Canadian sprues sound bord (like sitka european sitka), a re enforced Mohogany neck , a dark Rosewood fret board with mother of pearl hand cutted inlays and a Maple hand crafted rosette. The instrument will also have a acoustic pick up and will have 6 stings that will be tuned in Daddee (not to be comfused with DADY!!! ah ah)... I install a X brace on the sound board for stiffness....I can wait to finish this dulcimer-like instrument!!! I will post a new photo when I will be done...this month!!!

Cutting a rosette for an OUD

For this rosette,I use a large saw frame.I use different saw frames depending on the size of the rosette...the larger the saw frame ,more difficult it is because of the balance of the frame...I brake 2 saw blades on this one!!!not too bad!!

making a hand carved Rosette

To make a rosette,I use several plies of alternating grain veneer epoxied together and cured in a press.The thickness of the wooden plate is now 3mm. I draw the pattern directly on the wood and spray it with fixative to avoid smearing of the pencil marks while working.I drill the voids and cut out the design with a jeweler saw, using a 2/0 (antiloppe) saw blade.I then use small wood chisels, small jeweler files to carve out the pattern in 3 dimensions.
Depending on the intricacies of the design a carved rosette can take several days to complete,thus several days to dream about my next project

Between paintings and making musical instruments....

At my age!!!still dont know what I'm going to do when I grow up...Here is a photo of my new painting "Opening up" and my new Melochord in a setar shape

My first melochord

This is the first melochord I made, the design is inspire from a 3 (gut)string,fret less instrument from Kyrgyzstan called a Komuz.The body and neck of my instrument is cut out of one piece of wood, it has no braces behind the sound board,but the sound board is slightly bent for sturdiness...it produce a very nice and clear sound.it is fully chromatic and has 3 double strings tuned in unison

My inspiration to create the melochord

The instrument on the right is the first Saz that I made.The saz is a Turkish 3 double string instrument....The one I made is called a Cura Saz, it has a shorter scale instrument.The one on the left is a  Gambus Melayu that I made earlier.