Stylized Flute Stand

My dear sister invited me to a flute camp’ s recital in Asheville, NC held on their final day . I enjoyed the whole trip and learned some things, one of which was that such a thing as a flute camp even existed. My sister showed me a fellow student’s flute stand. – another thing I never knew even existed. She asked if I might make her one, saying that she had one but it wasn’t ‘anything to write home about’. Translation: It was some cheap make do with no character that she’d bought somewhere.

My version is a little over six inches in diameter with a seven inch spindle. It is made from walnut with hard maple intarsia stylized heart inlays for decoration. Finish is marine varnish – I use that for just about everything except my teeth. It was fun to make and I got a little carried away as happens often with me. I turned a recess in the bottom into which I poured two pounds of molten lead as ballast so the stand doesn’t tip over in use. The spindle is removable, and the biggest challenge of the project was getting a brass nut inset into the base, and the matching threaded brass rod in the spindle so that everything lined up properly in the end.

A layer of felt is glued on the bottom, and I sewed up a simple little felt carrying bag for transport between gigs.

My payoff is that my sister loves it!

-- "Never let your dogma be run over by your karma!"