Anything that can hold a tune and is made of wood, is being created by participants as part of instrument making short courses held in a TAFE SA fully equipped wood workshop.
One such participant, Sylvia Walker, is building her own harp. Sylvia’s relationship with the harp started when she was growing up out of a bout of sibling rivalry with her older sister who was learning the violin. When Sylvia Walker started playing violin, she found she could not beat her sister, so she took to the harp and turned the tables. “I generally have a hard time even convincing people that I play harp. They have to see to it believe it”, says Sylvia
This is the first time a harp has been built at TAFE SA. Lecturer Michael Snowden says there are many furniture related woodworking skills that come in handy building a harp.
“The harp is probably more related to furniture or cabinet making in particular because it has a turned post, something that we do on the lathes, and the other parts as well, can be machined on machines that you would use for day to day cabinet making: surface planers, panel planers; whereas with violin making it is mostly handwork. Some parts can be machined, but virtually we do that with hand tools.”
Another musical instrument maker in the class is John McEwen's who is building himself a cello. John decided to enrol in the course “…basically just for fun, I play the cello a bit and …. I’ve always liked woodwork so I thought I would have a go.”
TAFE SA also offers other woodworking and woodturning short courses, providing the general public with the opportunity to learn the basic skills to make furniture and learn about the tools of the wood trade.
Evening woodworking and woodturning short courses are held at TAFE SA’s Marleston campus on Richmond Road.
Sylvia’s story was broadcast on ABC TV's Stateline program. You can view the transcript of her story here.
For more information on instrument making, woodworking and woodturning short courses, contact the Faculty of Building and Furnishing on 8226 0634.
Monday 3 November 2008