Other Interests

Marquetry

When I am not scanning my Fred Harvey-related postcards, sorting through and tweaking my Harvey location photos, putting together this web site, managing the Fred Harvey Discussion Group, or mapping out my next Harvey House Hunt, I really enjoy making wood veneer pictures, known as marquetry.

One of my favorites is, naturally, of a Harvey Girl. The design is from a Fred Harvey menu. I have also started a view of the Castaneda Hotel in Las Vegas, NM. A goal is to make a series of famous Harvey Houses.

Hurdy-gurdy

In addition to creating marquetry pictures, I am currently embarking on a major wood-working project – building a hurdy-gurdy, which is a very unusual stringed musical instrument dating back to the Middle Ages. Operating a crank turns a wheel which strums the strings, some of which are impacted by the pushing of wooden keys to make the melody. The other strings are drones, resulting in a bagpipe-like sound.

Besides building a nice-sounding instrument, I hope to embellish it with marquetry, inlay and carving. I am chronicling the construction in a blog “A Hurdy-gurdy Odyssey.”