I've Finished the Koru Quaver

Well, I finally did it. Actually, it wasn't a big ask really. I get most of my carving done by 'chipping away' at it. Or rather, if I have a spare hour I do a bit of work on it. Anyway, I'm happy with it. There are a few little things I'd improve for next time, like getting the Koru curves smoother. It's now on the wall just before you enter my project recording studio and well, I guess it looks pretty good. Here are some pics from different angles.

I've been working on a few other projects lately. Once again, I usually find a spare hour here and there and dive down into 'the cave' (the garage) and work on stuff. It's a great distraction. I listen to cheesey music and drink cups of tea and simply immerse myself in it all. Other things I've been working on are a 'stage' for the recording studio and a design for a guitar amp enclosure. Here's a bit of background:

The Stage
My studio recording area is carpeted and carpet deadens the sound of recorded instruments in the high frequency region. Constructing a stage creates a hard surface on the floor that reflects the high frequencies and give what's called a 'live' sound character. Is it worth the hassle? Well, hell yes! Recently I recorded drums for a single I'm working on and I slotted sheets of particle board under the drummer's snare and tom and it was by far the best drum recording I've ever done. It created a nice solid, crisp snap to the snare and tom and brightened the cymbals. So, the stage is simply a hard surface that a recording artist plays their instrument on. I've made my stage using 18mm thick particle board. I've used 3 sheets that make up an overall finished size of 1.8m x 1.2m. It also massively improves the tone of acoustic guitars, bongos etc. I went the extra mile and routered the edges of the sheets and stained them into a checker-board pattern. There was a particular process I used to get the best results but I won't bore anyone with this unless they want to know the detail. Here is a pic of these during construction. There are 3 of these each measuring 1200mm x 600mm. I'll be adding a lighter shade stain to the 'light' squares, then a couple more coats of semi-gloss polyurethane and then they'll live on the floor in the studio. The holes are to stop them sliding on the carpet and to make them easier to pick up and move around.

Oh well, that's all for now. Thanks for stopping by. And as usual, I'm happy for any requests for more info on how I do things.

Cheerio
Amos

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