Slower Progress:

(I actually got a fair amount done, though…)

A few weeks ago, I bookmatched my plates. Then I cut ribs and necks, so as to set up “kits” for six new five-string fiddles. Afterward, I started building two of them, as parallel builds.

Since I last posted, two weeks ago, I did not exactly stay on schedule, but I didn’t get too far behind.

Scroll Carving

I had already completed the first scroll and neck, and had begun working on the second neck, when, I “kinda took an unplanned detour.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I Had a Small Mishap:

I had worked for 12 hours, Monday the 16th, and afterward, I felt pretty tired. Consequently, I had tired hands: Probably I had a tired brain, too, I suppose… anyway:

I had begun carving the second scroll. I completed the saw-carving part, and I was removing waste wood, with a small gouge, when, I slipped. annnnd, just happened to have my left hand in the path of the misdirected gouge. (sigh…)

 

 

 

Urgent Care? Emergency Room?

First we tried going to an Urgent Care clinic. We arrived there, and then discovered that (a) they only work by appointment, and (b) they don’t take medicare insurance, anyway. Accordingly,  I asked what my options were, and they said: “Everything else is closed! Go to the ER!” (Sigh… very expensive option!)

So, about 30 minute later we arrived at the Emergency Room at Saint Vincent Hospital. They were busy as usual, so we waited for about four hours. But after that, the ER people washed it out with sterile water, X-Rayed it to eliminate the possibility of torn bone or tendons, and applied two little “Steri-Strips!”

 

I guess that was normal,  but it felt pretty “exposed,” and was very prone to bumps (which were pretty uncomfortable when they happened.) So, after we got home, Ann bandaged me up with a heavily padded dressing so that I could sleep without bumping it. That was a real help, and, as a result, I slept well.

However, I kind of puttered around, the next day…partly too tired, I suppose, as we had arrived home somewhat after 3AM, and we got to bed after 4AM. Partly, I was just not feeling real good. Anyway, I had other things that needed doing, so I didn’t work on fiddles for that day.

 

Back to Work!

I got back to work on Wednesday. It turned out that I really needed two hands for most things, so it slowed me down rather badly, having a bulky bandage on the left paw. However, I was finally able to get the fingerboard installed on the first scroll/neck so that I could shape them as a unit.

 

That was kind of encouraging, seeing some progress again.

 

 

Then I set the neck on fiddle #1:

 

 

 

 

Healing up!

After that, we had appointments with various people, so I didn’t get a lot done on Thursday or Friday. By the time the weekend had rolled around, I had the biggest bandages off, and was sporting a plain finger bandage, but I had to be pretty careful.  Bumps were still pretty unpleasant.

 

So, after having removed the bulky bandage, I went back to work on fiddle #2, carving that “Red Violin” scroll into just a plain, “five-string fiddle scroll.” It looked as though the majority of the “gore” would simply be carved away: so, no “Red Violin!” (By the way, that little gouge, third from the right, is the one that perforated my thumb.)

 

I will post more again, soon. Sorry for the hiatus: it wasn’t intentional. 🙂

 

Thanks for looking.