Its been a busy November. I haven’t been spending any of it writing. Instead, finishing up more flute projects. Tomorrow I am shipping the last keyed flute project out. I then have a pair of Folk Flutes to make, and one flute with rings and slides in boxwood. I have 3 different projects for 2022 including a Boxwood combo in Bb and A, another flute with rings and slides, and a Bb with some newer acoustical design that will hopefully work.
Nothing physical has happened for the glass flute front except a few tool purchases - nothing major. We missed our chance to move in the 640 lb pantograph mill during the last dry days of the fall thanks to a coronavirus scare. I think at this point I simply need to start moving it piece by piece until the pedestal is stripped down to about 400 lbs. At that point me can probably move that part in the Honda Fit assuming we can tip it in carefully. The kiln that I moved in June weighed almost that much as was more awkward.
I might do a run of wooden flutes for a retailer soon just for winter cash flow. Otherwise plans include wiring in the new kiln finally, finding a cheap 2nd kiln that I can use simply for annealing (it only needs to go up to around 1000F). A local glassblower and I might get together when he fires up his furnace in January or February. He says he keeps these on for months and I wonder what the energy costs and carbon output is of such a craft. Meanwhile I will be busy copying the silver parts and getting those molded and cast, and designing flutes based on the data I have.
After a year I have seen no evidence of deterioration in the 3D printed plastics so I will be starting off making copies using that medium. These flutes don’t need to be fluted (grooved) on the outside for weight reduction. They actually benefit by having that additional weight since the material is about the same density as boxwood. I will be trying to design some with the faceted surface.
On the glass front I just found a source of machinable casting waxes, including one that melts out at 160F that I will test. By the end of December I should be mostly set up for cold working glass though I might postpone that until balmier times. I have a lot of tooling to invest in and might do that in December for the tax advantage.
Writing about instrument making on my other blog will just have to wait, I think. Since I am now more or less caught up I am focusing on reorienting my relationship to my work into a happier space and how I react to it, and to the thought of getting up and working every day. Gone are the worries of a queue of instruments that need to be made that are partly or mostly paid for.
This week a Laurent Flute from 1814 with some royalty provenance sold at auction in Europe. It looks like the the glass on it is devitrifying in places. Otherwise the flute appears intact and in an original Laurent case. With VAT and auction fees the buyer paid probably around the equivalent of $30,000. If I could sell my glass copies for a quarter or a third of that, I would be happy.
Comments
No posts