On Key

L: Désiré, R: Paulin

88 piano keys pre-sanded. We're still deciding what to do with them. Whether to go for traditional black and white, or whether to try something funky. We were thinking igitenge before, but the lady who knows how to do that with epoxy resin has left and it might be a bit busy on the eye. We'll use igitenge on the interior, but perhaps go for either traditional black and white keys or plain wood and stained wood. It's fun to think about, but first we need to sand down the keys, deal with any gaps or inconsistencies, and - more mind-bogglingly - figure out how we're going to weight them. Traditionally, key butts contain a small lead weight to help them fall back after playing.

The weights themselves aren't expensive, but postage is always very costly and often very lengthy, so we're always looking for alternatives. It may be that we can melt down lead and make our own weights, or perhaps there's another material we could play with that gives similar drop.

Fun things to think about. Speaking of fun, Chillington have completed the pattern for the string frame, so we get the original Lirika frame back next week. That means we can start rebuilding... with a few modifications. More on that shortly.