Lonnie Ezell

Ok, so I don’t know how exciting any of these posts are to you anyone out there. I suppose, if you start on the adventure of creating your own bodhran, you might be interested. If not, maybe they act as a good form of Dramamine, so it’s still useful. But I’ll keep posting here until they’re done. Then I’ll post a short video of me attempting to play the thing, just so you can get an idea of how it sounds, and if it’s worth your time.

It’s exciting to me, though. Any time you embark on the act of creation, you let a little bit of yourself free. You put a little bit more of yourself out there for the world to see and I suppose it could be scary to some. Heck, this bodhran definitely has it’s issues, and I’ve been trying to make sure I include those as warning signs down the road to this particular creation.

It’s funny, I’ll hear people say, “I will try anything, once.” They wear it like a badge of honor, as they should. It takes courage to attempt the unknown. However, these same people will scoff at people who are trying to build something new, or write  a novel, or train for a marathon. Wait. What happened to trying something new? Does that only apply to drugs, sex, and food? Bah!

To all of you out there daring to make something, daring to get out of your comfort zone, or daring to try something new and are prepared to fail: I salute you. You are the courageous people the world needs more of. Keep creating.

Finishing

With that PSA out of the way, it’s back to the bodhran.

It’s downstairs in the basement, right now, letting the final coat of clear coat dry. It’s an exciting time, watching the luster on the Golden Oak-colored wood dry. The accents of black set it off and give a professional appearance. It’s a beauty.

Until you rotate it a bit and look around inside. Then you notice the scars and pock-marks and realize it’s amateur hour.

Here’s a bit of advice to all you stainers. It’s something I new, but didn’t pay careful enough attention to, I guess. Make sure you get all of the wood glue off of the wood when it’s wet. It is a fine-balance between having enough glue to hold everything in place, and too much so that it seeps out of the cracks. I always thought this was a situation where too much was a good thing. You simply wipe it away with a wet rag.

And it appears to work. However, if you look closely at the pic, on the inside where the black band meets the rest. See that white streak? That’s where I had wiped the glue with a wet rag. I even went over the spot with a light sanding. I’m not sure what I’ll do differently next time I try something like this. If you know how to get around that problem, please leave a comment.

I also have 4 dime-sized circles of almost unstained wood on the outside. This is where glue had dried and I had sanded it down. However, knowing that all I had was a veneer and I didn’t want to sand through it, I didn’t sand enough, though it appeared that the glue was gone.

Oh, well. These are the battle scars, and I’ll wear them proudly, if need be. They are proof of my tuition to the school of hard knocks, as they call it. Experience. Either way I know that, when I’m done with the drum and start playing on, I’ll have the awesome knowledge that this Act of Creation was mine. And every rhythm that I make on it, is another tiny Act of Creation.