Made to Strum

WAITSBURG-Most aspiring musicians are eager to run down to the music shop, buy a guitar and play songs for screaming fans, and start selling out concert halls. Few give thought to where instruments come from: through the care of know-how of a luthier.

A luthier builds and repairs stringed instruments using their understanding of musical scales combined with the materials of the trade such as metal hardware and hardwoods, as well as craftsmanship to create a work of art you can play for years.

Local musician and luthier, Carrie Hendrix, has been interested in instruments since childhood. Hendrix would spend as much time studying her guitar's construction as she spent learning to play it.

Hendrix began building cookie tin banjos with instructions found in the best-selling Foxfire series. From there, her skills grew with experience as she apprenticed with a luthier in Berrien Springs, Michigan. There she was exposed to a variety of guitars, mandolins, harps, autoharps, etc.

While her practice is local to the foothills of the Blue Mountains, her approach is far-reaching.

"I draw inspiration from musical instrument design from cultures around the world,"says Hendrix. "I am fascinated how form and function go hand in hand with the local materials a culture has to work with."

A selection of Hendrix' handmade musical instruments are on display at 10 Ton Coffee on Main Street. In addition to mountain dulcimers, a mandolin and a 22-string harp, Hendrix has recreated the historic crwth, a bowed Celtic instrument similar to a violin, from x-rays of the last three in existence.

"Carrie Hendrix is the real deal," says local musician and instrument specialist Joe Patrick. "Each one is a conversation piece."

Hendrix has built over 20 custom dulcimers, as well as a small wooden drum and a harp for clients. Each piece takes about two months for planning and construction, working four hours per day.

Going forward, Hendrix will try her hand at making a rebec, a very small three-string bowed instrument and expand her repertoire to include violins. Hendrix is also planning to build a hurdy gurdy which is a stringed instrument operated by a crank.

In the future Hendrix will sell her instruments on Etsy. The show at 10 Ton will be on display through February 14th.