starting on the keyboard

The frame (or "harp") has been under string tension for a couple months now, without doing anything terrible.  I have started to assemble the necessary materials to build the keyboard and action.

I found these great glass-covered tiles, the white rectangles in the pic, which will I think be perfect for the sharps.  I was considering using the black square tiles you see, for the fronts of the naturals (and plain black wood for the rest).  But the black tiles are slightly too wide.  I'd have to grind them down on two sides, to make them fit in the necessary spacing without touching.  Before I get into ceramic-grinding, I'd rather find something that fits off-the-shelf.  Or, make something...

Here you can see the little thumbscrew thingie which I have turned into an arcade-cutter.

And here it is again, after clipping its wings off asymmetrically, and scoring the wider-angle side so that it cuts a nice pattern of grooves.  This will be used to cut "arcades" in the front edges of the keys: another small bit of decoration which I allow myself, on this essentially ugly-but-functional prototype instrument.  (Partly, of course, I am just developing the decoration techniques for later use, and this instrument is the guinea pig.)

Here is the plywood jig I have made, for rolling out flat slabs of clay at a consistent thickness.

Only Duck Pond 2002 Chardonnay bottles will work for this, they are made of a special glass which resonates with the molecular structure of the...

A nice slab of clay, rolled out and ready to become an octave of natural keys.  This is "Della Robbia" oven-bake clay.  After air-drying for a week or so, you bake it in the oven at low heat (like 200F), and hopefully it ends up hard enough to be the covering of natural keys!  Or not...

I used laser-printed templates, both to initially cut the key shapes (I used a matte knife), and then later to trim the partially-dried keys to final shape and size, by comparing with the lines on the template underneath.

Here's the first of the four octaves, trimmed and ready to dry for a few days.  The other three are waiting for trimming in the background...

...However, since it was then time for me to go attend to other aspects of life, I stored the other untrimmed octaves in plastic containers, with moist paper towels in there.  I hope this keeps them pliable until I get back to them (within a day).  Looks like a big batch of yummy fudge!