A little nostalgia this time......
My interest in Kanteles goes a long way back to my early 20's but the reference point was the fabulous book of old Kantele drawings by Rauno Nieminen published in 1984 which I had ordered from Finland via fax (amazing how we did things before the Internet took hold)
I took a year to make it on and off, mostly by hand, completing in the year 2000 in my back garden.
Made from a recycled pallet runner of Poplar and pinewood, It was always more artifact than an instrument, smaller than the 5 string Kanteles I make today but it does play. It has had several different stringing and tuning pin stages, painted several times but now in black it has wooden violin pegs and .010" strings tuned to B, c#, d#', e f#
The sizes of this one are100mm wide and 480mm long
Introduction video
Playing example
The instrument now has a new home in Walthamstow, London E17, birthplace of William Morris and my own instrument making Career.
For my website and current Kanteles see here
