September 2015

Marimba for Yinnar

Here is the collection of materials as they will presented to participants at the Marimba making workshop at Arc Yinnar In October.

As the workshop is held over just one weekend, I will cut the pieces to size, leaving only the interesting bits for the workshop participants i.e. tuning the keys and resonating pipes, assembling, final sand and applying finish.

The Keys are made from Blackwood (Acacia melanoxylon), the frame from recycled Vic Ash (Eucalyptus Regnans) floorboards and the tubes from Aluminium.

I have completed one and placed it at Arc Yinnar for folks to have a play of and a squiz at…..

If you can’t make it to Arc, here is a rough recording of the finished instrument (sound starts at 15 secs). Thanks to Jon Madin for the hot cross parts……

Marimba design process

I have been developing the instrument design for the marimba workshop at Arc Yinnar over the last month or two. I drew on my own marimba building experience and furniture design work, as well as many practical ideas from the marimba designs of Jon Madin. The solution for mounting the aluminium tubes was suggested by the supplier in Morwell, Allform Industries.

I have included some sketches showing the process of design

Mossvale Park Summer of Soul

The last few years I have run a stall at Mossvale Park for the annual music festival run by the Lyrebird Arts Council……. this year I set up a Tee Pee full of small marimbas and hang a group of tuned scrap metal from the spreading Cork Oak tree. I made hammers from sections of walnut branch, with escalator rubber pads. People would begin by looking slightly bemused, but once they began to play, delight and fascination took over.

The following recording was made on one of the wheels, striking the spokes, centre and rim.

This time I am playing a roller which in a former life was part of the conveyor belt assembly dragging brown coal out of the La Trobe valley. A section was removed from the middle to create two tones.

Now a mixed recording of the tuned pipes. Water and gas pipes resonate well, as does copper and aluminium.

As the afternoon wore on, general mayhem broke out. One kid was taking a 30 meter run up. Most of hammers were broken, one in half. The sound was outrageous. People discovered that the range of tone and effect that could be found in what appeared to be junk can be fascinating.

This final recording is some of the notes found in a curved piece of steel pipe.

Arty Gras workshops

For Arty Gras 2015 in Mirboo North I was asked to run a series of marimba making workshops open to anyone from the local community. There was a fantastic response, with two adult groups building in the Grain Store and Bec Woodall from Mirboo North Secondary College bringing a group of music students along to one run in the Mirboo North Men’s Shed. All participants lent their instrumenst for the public to play on the day of the parade, then got to take them home. The satisfaction of making a tuneful instrument with their own hands proved to be a fantastic way of engaging people in making music.

arty gras workshop - Brad — Sounds great, Brad!

Tee Pee

Construction of 3 Tee Pees for Meeniyan Pre School.

These were built with Jay Thompson, a fellow local builder, educator, musician and general Renaissance Man.

Hat Stands

So Ted and Nat tell me their big old Walnut Tree has died standing in the ground. Very sad…………….No more nuts…………….

We fall the tree, have the main trunk and root ball slabbed, but what to do with the many, many branches left? Make many, many small trees, of course. Use ’em for your hat.

Here’s two.

furniture

Playroom Shelves

Walnut and Silver Wattle

Sun Bed

bedside tables

trombonaphone

The trombonaphone was originally conceived as a sound compression chamber for an outdoor music festival. I imagined sitting inside the bell of a trombone, listening to a concentrated, small segment of the sonic splash an outdoor sound system provides. The bell would also reflect back towards the stage, as a small intimate connection in an open, public setting. Boolarra Folk festival is a lovely community event, and provided the context to make a symbolic representation of this idea.

Technical drawing used to calculate the radius of each ring.

The work was made from 6 meter lengths of cane, with each ring being prepared in my workshop with assistance from Carmen and Saskia.

Constructed on site the day before the festival, I relied on help from Carmen, Saskia, Jay, Pete (pictured) and Jared to construct this work in a day.

From very formal ideas of the form of this work, many hands contributed to making an organic structure which had broad appeal and layers of meaning.

atomic wheel of life

The design idea for this work came from a symbol carved into rock in the ancient Buddhist temple caves near Lonavla, in India.

Made by steaming Blackwood over a purpose built frame.

cherry plum prunings

One corner of my stall at Mossvale Summer of Soul, 2013

A Bower made in 2014 to celebrate the 1 year anniversary of the Artisan Store in Mirboo North. It was made with the prunings from our cherry plum tree at home.

More prunings from our Cherry Plum tree. Installed at Lilly Pilly Playgroup, Churchill.