Portfolio
Miscellany
Daniel Joseph Betsill, luthier
Artist's Profile, UGA Website 2008
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Progress on the tenor cittern. The AA sitka spruce top is selected, edge planed on the shooting board, and joined
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Tuesday, September 23, 2008
The larger of the two slit drum carcuses is dry-fitted. Showing the tracking grain from the end around to the side. Before assembly the sides will have the sound hole (slot, more like) routed. See dedicated page for more on this project
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Saturday, September 13, 2008
The tenor cittern back and neck are attached. Trimming the back in progress.
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Friday, September 5, 2008
Pegs for the tenor cittern in progress. See dedicated page for my citterns.
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Friday, September 5, 2008
The bottom of the symphony will be made up out of staves to satisfy the arched profile of the bottom
The string holder for the symphony, viewing from the bottom of the instrument.
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Tuesday, June 10, 2008
An historic event: the 80 year old white oak at the entrance to Emory University is cut down to make way for the re-directed road which will once again pass through the pillars.
So into my trunk it goes (well, part of it) and. . .
. . .back to the workshop where it will be turned into bowls as a donation to The Alliance to Improve Emory Village and to Glen Memorial Methodist Church for fundraising efforts. (The big hunk of magnolia has new friends to keep it company for a time)
Cutting. . .
Roughing. . .
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Tuesday, June 3, 2008
I'm making a symphony for my friend Kevin in exchange for his excellent baglama saz. Top is my drawing, a modification of an existing design, showing the half-circle peghead I've created to avoid tapping the pegs directly into the body. I am also contriving the have the keys occupy round holes in the bottom and, instead of penetrating the top (top as relative to the player position) as is common, I am creating channels inside the box for the opposite end of the keys to rest. These improvements both attenuate potential cracking of the case and, consequentially, is easier to build because I'm not tapping two sets of rectangular holes. The bottom picture is the figured sapele I'm using for the case
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Tuesday, April 22, 2008
I'm carving a spoon while I carve a new tenor cittern pegbox
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Sunday, January 20, 2008
Work resumes on the Heaven's Door. The spandrals have been remade to pitch correctly and the superstructure has been made to break down with pinned mortise and tennon joinery. here, the a new method for hanging the panels is being tested. Click here to for the complete history of the project.
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Friday, July 13, 2007
Work complete on the vielle
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Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Work resumes on the vielle. The finish is on and awaiting the fittings. Click here to for more details
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Sunday, May 6, 2007
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Progress on the Stockhausen Heaven's Door. Click here to for more details
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Sunday, May 6, 2007
This is a piece of a Magnolia tree that was removed from a property in the Brookwood neighborhood of Atlanta, a neighborhood of exclusive homes around a golf course which was planned in the 1920's. The lot is being developed with a new house in an Arcadian colonial style by my company. I'll be turning a bowl for our client to present to them at the move-in.
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Sunday, February 4, 2007
A new banjo. This one will be an 11" open-back. figured ash rim with ebony edgeband. The instrument will have a highly figured maple neck and ebony fittings.
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Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Pegs for the current vielle project. Click here to for more details
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Friday, January 12, 2007
Commencement of commission for Stockhausen's Heavens Door. I am excited to announce that I have recently undertaken construction of one of these instruments, conceived by Karlheinz Stockhausen for the performance of his piece "Heaven's Door". Above is an early drawing of my design for the door, showing superimposed over the front elevation the geometry and proportion in comparison to Vitruvian Man and the Golden Section. Click here to for more details
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Friday, January 12, 2007
A new vielle of my own pattern for John Hillenbrand of Savannah. The instrument is being customized for John from my original design to have a larger peghead to make tuning easier during performance and the overall body depth is increased for added volume. Here the flame maple ribs are bent around the form and the neck/peghead is rough carved. The striped maple and ebony back is attached.
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Wednesday, September 27, 2006
A new dulcimer for Shannon, nearly complete. It's hard to tell from the photo, but the body is asymmetrical. The back is striped with alternating walnut and maple. The instrumnet is complete save for the varnishing of the back and sides
Detail shot of the "hook" at the peg head. Only the fingerboard and top are varnished at this point. The scrollwork is inspired by renaissance cittern heads which were made to "hang on the walls of barbershops for the ammusement of waiting patrons"
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Wednesday, September 27, 2006
What, you may wonder, is this. This is a south-east asian 2-string Rabab spike fiddle in the making. First step: carve out the coconut and make fruit salad.
The spike fiddle in progress. The coconut shell is attached to the turned spindle and the goatskin head is attached. To the side is a peg in the making. My model for this instrument is the Indonesian rabab I documented years ago in the collection of Steven Everett at Emory University. but the coconut I had was too small for that instrument so I am making a more generic instrument which is smaller and shows more middle-eastern influence.
Workshop in a closet.
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Online Chap Book (in progress). . .
And
did the Countenance Divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among these dark Satanic mills?
-William Blake
He slept thus until late morning, while the pillows arranged themselves into a large flat plain on which his now quieter sleep would wander. On these white roads, he slowly returned to his senses, to daylight, to reality - and at last he opened his eyes as does a sleeping passenger when the train stops at a station.
-Bruno Schultz, from The Cinnamon Shops
Deus Mysterium tremendum et fascinans.
-Rudolph Otto
With faith, discipline and selfless devotion to duty, there is nothing worthwhile that you cannot achieve.
-Jinnah
Both music and dance are voices of the way.
-Zenji Hakuin
For the dulcimer rhimes are grace place and the like.
-Christopher Smart