Harp Notes

First Brush Strokes

September 2004

And I waited some more.

Then I began to phone.

Eventually the man at Finneys caved in and gave me the carriage company's direct telephone number and the name of the person to talk to. Basically Finneys were unable to help me or even give a reasonable explanation what was happening. I also think it was to get rid of me as I was calling so often. ;)

When I got through, I was told the van driver could not find my house in the first instance and had taken my parcel back to the depot where it sat for several more days. I mentioned that I had given directions from the nearest village and my full post code address, where upon I was told that post codes are not reliable. Strange, as the Post Office seems to be able to use them, I said. Ah madam, post codes can be used for up to 10 houses at a time, said the smirking voice at the end of the telephone line. Oh I'm sure they are in built up, inner city areas, but you see I live on Dartmoor and there can only be 4 houses in a radius of 1 mile using this post code, 3 of which are prepared to accept said parcel for me. That shut the smirking one up for a moment. It seems that the extra surcharge that I had been made to pay didn't cover the cost of buying the driver a map to find my house. Or even to look up directions on the web. And neither the carriage company nor Finneys were prepared to reimburse me the extra money that I had been forced to pay. I don't like paying over the odds for a second rate service, or having some ignorant smirking voice at the end of phone offer me meaningless platitudes. Hence the lack of a link. I think you can understand why.

When I finally received the parcel, I had gone right off the idea of using anything from MD Finney. (Remember those energetic vibrations?) I put it down to experience and promised T that I'd use the highly expensive varnish on the medieval tent poles for next season.

That of course left me with a definite lack of finishing polish to use on my harp. Another trip back to Yewturn and a lengthy chat with Paul, who promised me a bottle of shellac as soon as possible. Unfortunately, that turned out to be another couple of weeks due, as we found out later, to the suppliers main storehouse being burnt to the ground! I was beginning to think I'd chosen the wrong type of sealant for my harp . . .

Eventually the shellac arrived, and armed with a bottle of methylated spirits, a new brush and several empty jam jars I hesitantly began to learn the art of shellac-ing.

Shellac is the name used for the purified version of an insect by-product. Basically, hundreds of thousands of these small insects called Laccifera lacca feed on the sap of certain trees, found in India and Thailand. They gorge themselves until the sap begins to seep out of their bodies, covering them, their eggs and the tree branches. This hardens and gives a protective coat to the hatching larvae, who then mature and leave to find their own tree. The hardened coating is then collected by locals, who either grind it down, sieve out impurities (including all those insect bodies!) and further refine it or, send it off to large companies to be commercially refined and prepared for purchase.

Now, you can either buy the solid flakes of the stuff and mix it up to your own specification, or do as I did and buy a pre-prepared version. I hunted for loads of information before I began to use it, as there appears to be two differing schools of thought. Some people seem to suggest that it is the most difficult varnish to use, quoting real problems with streaking and too rapid drying. Then there are others who suggest it is the best thing since sliced bread and won't hear a bad word against it.

Being a total newbie to this whole process, I put my faith in the fact that Mick Saunders recommends using shellac on his harps, and being a firm believer in testing before you leap, I decided to try it on a couple of odd pieces of wood before I touched my harp.

Mick had been very generous and sent me a couple of off cuts from sound boards, which I used as my test pieces. I decanted a bit of very well shaken shellac in to a jam jar, and using my new brush which I had previously soaked in clean meths, I started tentatively to coat the wood with a thin layer. Then, because it seemed to go on so easily, I also coated a small wooden box that I had. After that, I had to wait until it had dried, which for the first coat is only about an hour. Looking at it in the sunlight, it all seemed rather good. So, taking a deep breath I started work on the harp feet. I rigged up a scaffold type device to hold them up using bits of wire, so that I could paint all over them and dry them up in the air without having to put them on the work surface. The extra meths that I used on the brush seemed to help 'cut' or thin the shellac a little and made the application very easy indeed. I didn't seem to have any problems with streaking.

Of course, as soon as the first coat had dried I needed to sand down all the feet. It was a little disheartening that all my hard work seemed to be for naught when I felt the wood all raised again ~ but with each successive coat of shellac the finish became smoother and smoother. After 3 coats, not only were the feet a deep beautiful brown colour with gold streaks, but also incredibly smooth. I was most impressed with myself!

Finally, as a piece de resistance Vicky came up with a dazzling idea for the artwork on my soundboard. I was stunned ~ even though it was a rough idea, created with the joyful delights of Photoshop I was completely taken with the image. I couldn't wait to see it completed on Annie.