Creative Yen Acts

Creative Yen Acts Making practical applications for practical artists,
Making practical art for impractical people...

Rosettes in progress
04/09/2026

Rosettes in progress

Visit the post for more.

Rosettes
04/09/2026

Rosettes

Working on a couple guitars at the moment. Details to follow, but for the moment I’m starting on the sound hole rosettes. Drawing the framework Step 1 is just to draw out the dimensions and set up …

I have been working on musical instruments the last couple of years. Way back when I had the use of a bowl-back mandolin...
09/18/2025

I have been working on musical instruments the last couple of years. Way back when I had the use of a bowl-back mandolin that I rather liked, but as with so many things, I had to give it back. So, given that these days I’ve taken to just making things I want, but also remembering the error of starting with ukuleles, I thought perhaps a lute style guitar would be a happy medium....

I have been working on musical instruments the last couple of years. Way back when I had the use of a bowl-back mandolin that I rather liked, but as with so many things, I had to give it back. So, …

So much left to do… Realizing I’m terrible at making updates. Currently working on a lute like thing. Promise I’ll start...
09/15/2025

So much left to do… Realizing I’m terrible at making updates. Currently working on a lute like thing. Promise I’ll start posting the steps. It’s a first try, so I’ve made many mistakes, but I’ve come to realize I shouldn’t start projects that I’m not willing to make at least three attempts on…

So much left to do… Realizing I’m terrible at making updates. Currently working on a lute like thing. Promise I’ll start posting the steps. It’s a first try, so I’ve made many mistakes, but I’ve co…

In progress… Got a bit of a bee in my bonnet about Baroque style guitars after a December visit to the Musical instrumen...
01/31/2025

In progress… Got a bit of a bee in my bonnet about Baroque style guitars after a December visit to the Musical instrument Museum of Scottsdale Arizona. While I was there, the museum had a special showing of guitars from the age of Stradivarius including a guitar from himself and a bunch of other examples from the late baroque period....

In progress… Got a bit of a bee in my bonnet about Baroque style guitars after a December visit to the Musical instrument Museum of Scottsdale Arizona. While I was there, the museum had a special s…

Early stages Posting this as a bit of a placeholder. This year, I’ve been asked to help prepare for the first annual Geo...
09/27/2024

Early stages Posting this as a bit of a placeholder. This year, I’ve been asked to help prepare for the first annual Georgetown Halloween parade. So in addition to making an effigy for home and the office, I’m also helping construct giant puppets for people to march in the parade. A couple of weeks ago we had a workshop for people the make their own giant....

Early stages Posting this as a bit of a placeholder. This year, I’ve been asked to help prepare for the first annual Georgetown Halloween parade. So in addition to making an effigy for home and the…

A few thoughts on dragon anatomy Starting a bit early on Halloween this year. I may have mentioned that I got invited to...
08/07/2024

A few thoughts on dragon anatomy Starting a bit early on Halloween this year. I may have mentioned that I got invited to take part in a new Halloween Parade and run some workshops on making giant puppet creatures along the lines of my previous Halloween decorations. More pictures to follow, but these are some experiments to define what biological imperatives drove the evolution of a dragon… 😉

A few thoughts on dragon anatomy Starting a bit early on Halloween this year. I may have mentioned that I got invited to take part in a new Halloween Parade and run some workshops on making giant p…

Prototyping a mechanism for a Halloween decoration. You’ll have to imagine the ankle attached to the lower end of the sw...
07/31/2024

Prototyping a mechanism for a Halloween decoration. You’ll have to imagine the ankle attached to the lower end of the swing arm. If I widen the channel a bit the foot that is on the ground should just rest there The real trick at this point is going to be finding unicycle hardware to use to get the crank outside the fork that will eventually hold the real mechanism

Prototyping a mechanism for a Halloween decoration. You’ll have to imagine the ankle attached to the lower end of the swing arm. If I widen the channel a bit the foot that is on the ground should j…

Early prototype Given my history over the last few years with making giant effigies for Halloween, I was recently contac...
07/22/2024

Early prototype Given my history over the last few years with making giant effigies for Halloween, I was recently contacted to join the effort to institute a new Halloween parade in one of the southern neighborhoods of Seattle. (Specific details will be in a later post) Officially I’ll be running a couple of workshops on how to construct giant cardboard heads, similar to what I made last year, but to make them in a way that lends itself to easily strolling down the street with it....

Early prototype Given my history over the last few years with making giant effigies for Halloween, I was recently contacted to join the effort to institute a new Halloween parade in one of the sout…

It was late, I had an urge… A little while back, we visited Rome for a week or so. While we were there we had a couple o...
07/17/2024

It was late, I had an urge… A little while back, we visited Rome for a week or so. While we were there we had a couple of opportunities to have mushroom risotto at restaurants around the city. one of them was spectacular, the other was… disappointing… to say the least. Some time after I got back, I saw a video on YouTube from the channel…...

It was late, I had an urge… A little while back, we visited Rome for a week or so. While we were there we had a couple of opportunities to have mushroom risotto at restaurants around the city. one …

There’s a line somewhere about how “artwork is never finished, just abandoned…” I think I’ve reached it. The challenge a...
04/17/2024

There’s a line somewhere about how “artwork is never finished, just abandoned…” I think I’ve reached it. The challenge at this point, is how to finish it. Up until now, all my instruments have gotten a variation of a shellac finish. A “Quebecois Polish” if you will… That may be appropriate here to some degree as a colored shellac will go a long ways to highlight the carving as the darker shellac collects in the various nooks etc....

There’s a line somewhere about how “artwork is never finished, just abandoned…” I think I’ve reached it. The challenge at this point, is how to finish it. Up until now, all my instruments have gott…

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