In an overhaul that probably took me way too long to finish, I’ve re-made the custom ordering page, which is titled “Find Your Own Psaltery” on the Phantasy Psalteries navigation menu.
I’m hoping that the new order form will be more user-friendly, as it now uses larger font, and is mostly visually oriented. I’ve tried to use less words, and more pictures—though there are still links to informational pages on the order form.
So if you were thinking about placing a custom order: don’t be shy! 
Pictured to the left is another custom bowed psaltery that I’m working on. I’ve just applied the first few sealer coats of shellac, and the figure in the wood comes alive.
And, that’s what I call curly! The top is curly redwood, the binding is curly maple, and the rosette ring is also curly maple. The central rose is Padauk.
Today I finished up on two custom-ordered bowed psalteries, probably the first time ever I’ve finished two in the same day.
The first one finished was the one with the Western Red Cedar top and Figured Cherry back.
The second one has a dragonfly rose, along with Ebony binding and bridge, and ammonite shell halves inlaid into the Chechen sides.
As you can see from the links within this entry, I’ve posted pictures of both psalteries before, but I also like to add a final picture with the strings on to get a better sense of the finished product.
To the left is a picture of the handle of a custom tuning wrench that was made to match the woods of a custom bowed psaltery. The main body of the wrench (and the psaltery as well) is made of figured Myrtle. The wrench has a strip of Mango in the middle, which was taken from the same board as the psaltery’s top. Also, it’s hard to see it in the current picture, but the base cap is made of Cocobolo, which matches the binding/bridge of the psaltery.
Here’s an overall shot of both the wrench and the psaltery. I’ve got to admit that it’s one of the best looking psalteries I’ve seen in a while! (And it sounds great too.)
In this picture you can also see the Cocobolo base cap on the tuning wrench.
I was scraping a centerstrip of herringbone-style banding flush with a Wenge back when I thought it might make a cool picture.
When a card scraper is sharp, and it hits the back just right, it will peel off a nice layer of material. Here, it was peeling off thin layers of the herringbone pattern.
Such a simple, yet versatile too: long live the card scraper!
Here’s another update on the custom bowed psaltery that featured the dragonfly rose posted earlier.
The picture to the left shows the psaltery tipped up on its side to show a clearer shot of both the back and side.
The back/sides are made of Chechen, the binding is Ebony, and the small shell inlay that you see on the corner is actually an extinct mollusk called an Ammonite. I buy these fossils as matching shell halves and offer them as an inlay option.
