70-80 more hours left in my official work year. Then my knee replacement operation in early November. Afterwards I plan to spend some time studying with Christiann van Hemert's YouTube instructional videos on Gypsy Jazz Guitar, work up some jazz accordion, learn some new Gaita tunes, and pursue the latest operatic idea: this one will be an Antinuclear Opera called "MELTDOWN AT BODEGA BAY" and it just came to me a few sleepless nights ago. Last night I was all sore from Monday's flu shot and tonight I must get some sleep!
(CP) In the short term - I still have one or two blackwood Folk Flutes for small hands ready to delivery. Immediately if in the US, shipping on November 26 when the CITES Permit requirements expire if you are in another country. Get them while they are hot - especially if you need one for the Holidays. Otherwise, I will be shipping the next batch in late January assuming the weather allows work in my workshop. It usually does bit I am expecting a cold winter with more than usual snowfall. Order these at my Folk Flutes site.
Exciting things for 2020. I have my new Student and the instruction has begun via video conferencing. She will be physically here for the entire month of May learning production methods if time allows, marketing etc. as well as my design philosophy. We plan a tour of some of the other west coast woodwind makers and a few collectors. Once she is tooled up and producing flutes at the needed pace that meet my approval, she will be the one to produce my popular Folk Flute line into the future - though given her location in Canada these will probably be available in other woods instead of Blackwood as there are few good sources for her there. My supplier with his mountain of decades old blackwood never bothered to deal with the permits and cannot ship to Canada. So we are exploring such things as acrylic impregnated woods, manufactured woods, etc. I am fortunate to have found someone who is a better flute player than I, as well as someone with some basic flute making experience, as well as the drive and youth to turn this into a lifelong career. And female - there are too many make flute makers. This will be the start of her career and it will be interesting to see where she takes her flute making, using my designs as her starting point. I hope the student exceeds the master.
I will be focusing on my higher end flutes and producing these hopefully for the next few decades or more, adding some bling possibilities such as bands with floral or faunal artwork. I will finish my conversion to cast keys, including the adoption of a angled G# key that is best ergonomically, especially when combined with the long F. I am adding a new pitch to my low flutes as well as improving my low A to be louder and more ergonomic. I will be offering a few one of a kind flutes in unusual and lovely woods. Once the new pitch is being produced, I might only take orders for that and simply offer the others for sale when I have them in stock. I am so ready to be done with a queue list of clients expecting flutes by a certain time, and checking in frequently as if that makes it go faster (it destroys me and makes everything go slower while I go off and do something more fun).
I want to be done with producing several flutes a month and want to slow down to about one a week at the fastest, spend more time playing music (rather than solely making hardware for other musicians), and composing. And hiking with my new knees, paleontologic fieldwork, walk in Galicia, and slow my pace of life down considerably on the work side of things.
Cheers!
Casey
