Introducing Two New Tone Holes: Dancing Heart And Vine Heart

After his trip to the Ohio Valley Gathering in Lexington, KY, Richard brought back some custom orders courtesy of Mike Clemmer from Wood-N-Strings in Townsend, TN. Included in the order was a CSH model hourglass dulcimer. A pretty standard instrument, but with a twist. Mike requested that the tone holes be mixed and matched on the top and bottom of the hourglass ("f" hearts on the bottom, circle of hearts on top).

Since we rarely say "no" to custom requests, a soundboard was made with the mismatched pair of tone holes. And after looking at it, it was clear that cosmetically it wasn't going to work. Enter Richard: "Nick, we need some new tone holes." The premise of the assignment: top and bottom tone holes had to be different, but similar enough to work together aesthetically on the instrument.

Vine Heart (click image for larger view)

Having a degree in fine arts and graphic design, I eagerly accepted the job and got back to my education roots (if only for a little while). The work started out as sketches on paper, and quickly escalated to two brand new illustrated computer files that wound up as engraved/cut tone holes on a couple beautiful instruments.

Mike chose the dancing heart. Thank you, sir!