I made this instrument in October & November of 2008. I copied it from this 19th century instrument in the National Museum of Finland, using information from Otto Andersson’s book The Bowed Harp and from Rauno Nieminen’s book Jouhikko: the Bowed Lyre.

The body & soundboard are made of pine wood, and the bridge, tailpiece & tuning pins are from a sycamore log that I fished out of the burn after a flood. The instrument was made entirely with hand tools, finished by scraping and then oiled with linseed oil. It is 21 inches (54cm) long, so the sounding string length is approx. 30cm. The two strings are of black horsehair, 30 strands on the left and 25 on the right (viewed from behind the instrument). It's tuned to a 4th, approximately middle c and the f above. The bow is made from a naturally curved stick with black horsehair.

Instrument and bow, in moonlight, April 2011

Instrument and bow, in sunlight, Feb 2009

Four views of the newly completed instrument, November 2008