As I write, it’s May 2020 and the coronavirus lockdown is ongoing. It’s been just over five years since I last ran a banjo building workshop, during the 2015 Easter holidays at Forfar Academy. For one reason or another, my planned build at Forfar Academy the following year didn’t go ahead and I haven’t re-visited […]
Those pupils at Forfar Academy who expressed an interest in building a banjo, back in March 2016, may be wondering what happened. I’m still waiting for confirmation from the school that indemnity insurance will be extended to me while running the course. Apparently, there won’t be a problem but I haven’t yet had word. As […]
Commencing after the Easter Holidays, on 12th April, a small number of pupils will have the opportunity to build their own banjo, from scratch. Workshop time will be programmed on Tuesdays and/or Wednesdays, immediately after the school day. The cost will be £45 per person in total. This covers materials and banjo hardware used. The […]
The first Banjoworks workshop ran during the school Easter holidays, over nine days. Three S1 pupils (twelve years of age) and one former pupil attended. Two of the pupils, Daniel Gough and Robbie Ferguson, built their banjos, start to finish in the nine days. One pupil, Scott Nicoll could only attend during the five days […]
Daniel completed his banjo over nine days during the school Easter holidays, 2015. Lots of photos of the completed instrument are available at Flickr. Lots of workshop progress photos are available at Flickr. Daniel made a great job of the instrument. It plays well and feels good to hold. The neck is built from layers […]
Scott completed his banjo over five days during the school Easter holidays, 2015. Lots of photos of the completed instrument are available at Flickr. Lots of workshop progress photos are available at Flickr. Scott was unable to attend the first week of the workshop. To ensure that he’d be able to complete an instrument, he […]
Robbie completed his banjo over nine days during the school Easter holidays, 2015. Lots of photos of the completed instrument are available at Flickr. Lots of workshop progress photos are available at Flickr. Robbie made a great job of the instrument. It plays well and feels good to hold. The neck is built from layers […]
Yesterday I used the opens source programme ‘Inkscape’ to produce a CAD drawing of the instrument stand, and took the file to Forfar Academy. The file was converted for use with one of the department’s laser cutters. The stand’s components were then cut from a sheet of 4mm birch plywood. This production method will be […]
The first banjo workshop will run during Easter holidays 2015 at Forfar Academy. Numbers will be limited to ten pupils, from S2 and S3. An initial meeting, to introduce the project to pupils, will be held in room 521 at 1.15pm on Wednesday 18th February. An introductory letter for parents is available to download here. […]
Forfar Academy may possibly host the first BanjoWorks workshop, during the 2015 Easter holidays. More information to follow. The photo above was taken by Mr Baldie, head of the design technology faculty at the school, during a visit to his after school craft club on Wednesday 12th November 2014. Three of his pupils are shown […]