Lyre creation... Brooke's Lyre.

Back (way back haha) in 2006, as part of the tradition and ... [word?] of our Steiner School, the Parents in Brooke's class, all created lyre's for their children to have and to learn to play in class. Lots of time over one day a week on the weekend. Lots of care and attention to detail. In a beautiful no-wall workshop in bush surrounds, the occasional animal visitors, and with a competent and patient teacher to guide us. We started with raw timber and finished with a beautiful instrument... all made by us, for our child. The children each chose the design for the cutout in the sound box. Brooke, as you can see, chose a dolphin. I asked her could I do the burn detail to create the waves.

So here's the photos, hopefully in the correct order. If you want to view the photos larger, try here.This comes because Michael is off to the makings of Jake's lyre and I was reminded that I hadn't put the photos all together in one place ...it's an amazing experience for both parent and child alike.

Of course, before all this even began, was the organising. Ordering special items from Germany, ordering the special timbers... making arrangments for the teacher, the workshop... all of this and more behind the scenes. Thankyou to those people...
Also I took photos but a few are from other people as well, so thankyou to them. Jake's lyre is in the beginning stages as I type... definately will add photos as I can of the creation of Jake's lyre.

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The lyre making starts... cut out pieces of wood... just the beginning!
there are far more steps than I have space here for photos
it was one full day's work, one day a week
and some at home in the later stages.

Cutting the holes...

putting the two pieces together... prepping the inside...

top edge



beginning the slow rounding process... taking off the square edges and 'blending' the joins in the two timbers...


adding the detail onto the soundbox...

blending the two timbers together round the edge of the sound box
taking off the hard edges and cornersto make the two timbers seem as one piece


sanding and blending done
holes drilled for the pegs


burn detail done around the dolphin for 'waves'

beginning the oiling process

oiling complete

pegs are in and the lyre is strung

complete