Harp Notes
Bubble Wrap and Ivy
December 2004
The bulk of the work on Annie had now been done. I let the wax on the arch and pillar settle for a further few days and then T set to work hammering in the bridge and tuning pins. This was a very noisy affair! Mick Saunders had recommended knocking them in as far as they would go with the bridge pins standing proud of the neck about 9mm. So, armed with a hammer and a piece of scrap wood, T proceeded to do just that.
One suggestion that I would make here for anyone else reading this ~ ensure that your lovingly waxed and treated wood is placed on something nice and soft, on top of your work surface. This cushions it and means that all your hard work isn't spoilt. We used pieces of cork board which seemed to do the trick, but I have to say every time I heard the hammer hitting the metal pins (albeit just tapping them in), I shuddered!
With the metal pins insitu, I started to really see a harp emerging out of the various pieces of wood. It was quite an odd perspective ~ even though I had always referred to Annie as "my harp", until then I had only seen her as an assorted collection of jigsaw pieces. Now she was coming together . . .
On Monday 20th December, I finally met the wonderfully talented Vicky and her adorable daughter! As part of her pre-Chrimble tour of Devon *wink* Vicky had managed to find space in her loaded car to smuggle Annie's sound board back into the county. So with some trepidation, T and I drove to Hilary's house to see the product of all Vicky's hard work and meet the artist herself. Unwrapping the bubble wrap was thrilling and a little daunting and as you might not be able to see in the pictures, when I caught sight of the completed artwork I became quite emotional. Vicky's interpretation of my vague idea, various emails and telephone conversations has surpassed anything that I had imagined. She was beautiful.
And amongst the cascading ivy leaves was a tiny dragon fly ~ an unexpected surprise that took 4 of us several moments of close scrutiny to find. I adore the symbolism of a beautiful, delicate creature emerging from another that is almost unrecognisable as being its younger self. Dragon fly wisdom talks to us of breaking down illusions, the power of change, swiftness and activity. Lots of things that I am aware of in my life, and certainly something that has been gifted to me to consider at a deeper level. I felt the smile of the Goddess that night, as I accepted another lesson on my life journey.
My final surprise was the accompanying CD of photographs taken whilst Vicky was actually working on the sound board. They are wonderful and it gives me an insight into the artistic process, not to mention a permanant record of Annies decoration adventure. I've included a couple here to show the artist slaving over the sound board!
But Vicky's time was very limited that evening and whilst I desperately wished that we could have had longer together, it wasn't to be. However, at some point in time I intend to play Annie for Vicky, her husband and her adorable daughter. I feel that would be a very personal way of saying thank you so very much.
Within a couple of days, I had completed the final shellac-ing of Annie's sound board. I ended up giving the painting itself two further coats, more as a precaution than a necessity really. I didn't want anything to happen to all that beautiful hard work. Then I waxed until my right hand felt like it was going to fall off! It was difficult to let it dry for those few days, but I knew I had to sit back and let the wax settle before putting all the pieces together. In the mean time, the golds in the wood shone out . . . .
