Music Stand

Since I am playing the harp at a super fancy wedding held at the nicest mansion in the metroplex, I started thinking a bit more about my ensemble. I need to fix the zipper on my nice satin skirt. Make sure I am dolled up and looking pretty, and somehow prevent having to take my music stand

I am not the kind of musician that just learns a bunch of songs by heart. I need the security of having my music in front of me. I have owned this music stand for probably 18 years, and it has done it's job all that time. However, it's just plain ugly. Here's this beautiful instrument, with an ugly piece of metal next to it.

I started looking at nice wooden music stands online, and found this super cool website of "Mister Standman". This guy works from C'Ordelane Idaho, in the middle of the mountains. His shop is a little cabin, surrounded by beautiful pine trees. I really like his work, but it so happens that my father-in-law is also a very talented woodworker.

Wouldn't it be so much cooler to design the scroll work myself, and have my father-in-law make it for me? I thought so. So I dug up my large pad of paper, clipboard, and pencils from the college days out of the shop. I used Standman's designs as inspiration, and started drawing. It was fun. I did a lot of erasing, cutting, re-doing and starting over. I got frustrated, and then excited when it turned out perfectly. Isn't it funny that when you have a hobby/interest that you haven't done in a while, you forget how much you enjoy it? Same thing happened when I welded that coat rack for my friend.

After getting my kids on the bus this morning, I headed down to Plano, to go to the wood store with dad. It so happens that my brother-in-law Josh just got out of the Navy, and his is staying with them. So that was an added bonus, to visit with him. I had kind of an idea of what color I wanted the stand to be, I wanted to match the harp. With some pictures in hand (actually camera), I showed dad, and he knew right away that it was maple. Off to the store we went.

The wood store is like a Joanns for men. If you haven't sewn before, you look at all that fabric and wonder how the heck anything useful can come out of it. But as you start sewing, and get some experience, the store isn't as frightening anymore. I had the same feeling here. All I saw was planks of wood, tools I don't know how to use, and cool tools.

Dad had his little supply list in hand, which he just whooped up in no time. We started looking at different kinds of maple. My harp has some "tiger striped" maple on the soundboard, which is really pretty. We found a piece of wood that had some of the same features. Then we picked out an accent color for some trim. There are so many different kinds of wood! I think we ended up picking some wood name Cambodia, or something like that.

Now dad has the challenge to see if he can finish this stand by Saturday. If he does it, he is officially a miracle worker. I really wish I could be around to see the whole process, but unfortunately I really need to be at home practicing, so I can sound as good as I will look :)