a few glimpses into the factory

This hobby I have, luthiery, used to take so much time and energy. But then it came to me. Use children as employment! They are fast and efficient, consume little, and their little hands do marvelous things even inside the tiniest ukulele!

Well, not really.

Crafting things with children is many things, but it's not very efficient, productionwise speaking. But  we get to learn the woods and the tools together; practice drawing a straight line from A to B; using the cabinet scraper, and using it after the thumbs have gone numb; we learn careful planning and coping after careful planning failed, we learn to communicate and ask for help etc.

I truly hope and pray that the only ukuleles or other instrument that are made by children, are made by the children that got to learn a craft and hobby out of free will, with their parents or a club at school or community.

But I know the world is not such a sunny place for all the children.

So, the next time you plan on buying something dirt cheap and easily disposable, remember that it's cheap for you, because somebody else somewhere has paid a high price for the product.

It might be a child working 16 hours a day, seven days a week.
It might be a man or a woman whose ID card was taken  to keep him/her from running off the inhuman slavery.
It might be somebody, whose health was severely damaged due to the production chemicals or mechanics.

Preparing the top bracing. My building pal Miika taught me a good
method to keep the braces rectangular while sanding.
Here it's revealed to the whole world to see...

Carefull planning

Band saw takes some adult supervision

Go Barin'

Miika cleaning up the glue spill out.
Spotless insides is a mark of a skilled luthier,
I heard myself teaching.

One side for Miika, other for Kaapo.
The maple in these miniature dimensions
bends extremely easily!

Nice figure!

some sanding required