Pump am y Penwythnos / Friday Five - 01/05/2020 5️⃣


Here’s my Show & Tell. This is my favourite of my guitars. It’s not massively valuable but it was given to my by a friend years ago in a terrible state because he knew I wanted a semi-acoustic guitar. The original inspection certificate with the serial number is still inside and dates the manufacture of the guitar as 1961-1962. So, it’s about the same age as me. Hofners were popular then in Europe because premium US brands were so rare here. I had the guitar restored by a Luthier to be faithful to the original spec. The colour is one from an Epiphone as this one would have been a less bright “tobacco burst”. I think it looks rather splendid now.

PS… And yes, that is a dragon in the bushes

found the pre renovation pic

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Ah yes, I can see what you mean. No Catrin was just giving us the Welsh translation

That is a beautiful guitar. I can’t justify owning any more but a semi acoustic like that is next on my list.

Diolch yn fawr Ken.
You do know that the optimum number of guitars has a mathematical formula. Go = Gc+1 (Where Go is the optimum number and Gc is the current number ) :slight_smile:
So there’s the justification proved by mathematics.
Hwyl,
Gareth

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Ha Ha. I like your thinking.

Ta-dah! I shall call it “Furlough Fun 1”

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That’s really cool. What is it made of?

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The bar of slate, piece of tile and the green glass came from beachcombing the foreshore here in Caernarfon, the copper wire was reclaimed from some old cables, the beads came from a broken necklace and the frame came from a charity shop!

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With a bit of luck you will all recognise this as arguably Gustav’s best creations.
I took my wife to Paris for a birthday treat for 4 days in 2016 and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We interrupted our “Red Bus” tour to visit the Eiffel tower - the commentary on the bus was fascinating. Apparently Adolf Hitler wanted to plant a flag at the top and was expecting to use one of the lifts. They were all out of action because they had all broken down and could not be fixed as the Tower was a one-off and spare parts were impossible to replicate. Roughly 4 hours after the end of WW2, they were all functioning again and continue so to do to this day!!
VIVE LA FRANCE!!

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Gorgeous

Wow! Incredible

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It’s also very interesting that the tower wasn’t well received originally by Parisiens much in the same way Londoners reacted to the Millenium Dome. How time heals. I think it’s fabulous and scaled it years ago when my children were young.

Glad you like it.

All finished! :blush:

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WOW, that is just incredible! I’m in awe of your talent. So detailed, so beautiful, so realistic! Thanks for sharing it with us!

I’d put that on my wall.
Stunning.

I’m very very late, but here’s my picture anyway.

A long time ago, in the olden days before Christmas, when people used to travel across the country on a whim, I bought a second-hand loom from eBay. @peterallen very kindly came across London to help me load it into a van and hasn’t stopped expecting me to use it ever since. Well, in order to use it I had to put it together, which meant I had to do some serious tidying up, which meant I had to finish tiling the floor so I could put things away. Then it was Christmas and there was no time for anything else, then I finally worked out where all the pieces of the loom went, then I had to work out how to thread it and warp it. Once I’d done that, I realised I didn’t have a seat the right height to sit at my loom, and it was impossible to use it without hurting my back, so I decided to make a loom bench. But to do that, I had to learn how to make a bench. So I searched for some plans on the internet, but I wanted a workbench to do the woodwork at and I didn’t have anywhere to put it, so I cleared my shed. Buying a workbench seemed ridiculous, so I decided to make one, but I didn’t have any wood for the legs, so I cut down a tree. Not long after, coronavirus came and I ended up looking after a 7 year-old and I realise now how much time I had on my hands in those days.

So, long story short, I made this table out of an old door, a tree trunk and some scrap wood. It isn’t artistic or beautiful, and it’s definitely not the intricately woven and perfectly proportioned set of curtains that I’d imagined making the very first time I used a floor loom, but it’s strong and serviceable.

Oh, and I still haven’t used my loom. I’ve sort of made one leg for the loom bench, though, and one day, I’m sure I’ll finish it, sit down at my loom, and come out of the experience months later proudly displaying a mis-shapen and twisted lump of what might loosely be called cloth. But what’s the rush? :wink:

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Well I think it’s both! Who wants a mass produced laminated flat-pack item when you could have a genuine hand-made, robust, all natural, bespoke piece of craftsmanship? And I’m not saying that with anything other than praise, I’m really, truly, impressed! :heart_eyes:

I vaguely remember that trip but struggling to remember which Christmas it was - 1997 comes to mind as I remember the tube was not running well because of snow. It’s also strange how memories change over such a long time as, when I saw the picture of the bench, I could have sworn that was part of the loom I helped put into the back of that van (though not looking quite as good is it did way back then).

@siaronjames, you’re really kind! I’ll copy that description for when I’m forced to sell pieces of knocked-together furniture on Etsy! At least, as @peterallen points out, I now have something I can break down to get plenty of wood! :joy:

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