Black Swamp Arts Festival

Congratulations to Steve who won 2nd place overall at the black swamp arts festival with his Aeolian harps. To learn more about the harp please see windharps.net

Update: The site is temporarily down while I backup is being restored. It should be up and working momentarily. Not sure yet what hit it, but the error will be remedied.

Safe Journeys

First Art Show of the Year

Well - it is that time of year again ! Art Fair season.
Crossing my t's, dotting my i's and getting ready to leave for the 49th Annual National Morel Mushroom Festival in Boyne City, Michigan. This year it is also an invitation only show as they are trying to bring the quality up and make it a destination of choice on the circuit. Always game for something like that so ... I'm heading back.
Last year at this time - it received the dubious distinction of being the first art show that I ever participated in. Learned alot about setting up my booth and some of the things I needed to create a good display and to market my windharps.
All a work in progress.
Always a work in progress as it should be.
I'll give you a report of the show upon my return.
Safe Journeys
Steve

After a long hiatus .....

Things have been very hectic trying to get ready for the gallery exhibition and summer shows and thus I apologize for the lack of material on this blog. That will be changing as I get into the habit of checking and updating this journal about the aeolian harps and my work.

I am fully open to suggestions on what you would like to learn about the Aeolian Harp as there is much provided by history regarding this instrument.

As has been blogged earlier, the Aeolian (Eolian) harp is a musical instrument designed to be played by the movement of wind over the strings and is one of the most significant symbols ever to appear in the arts during the Romantic Period. The wind harp achieved its popularity during the Romantic period largely because of its relationship to Nature and it encompassed many salient characteristics of Romantic mindset and wonderment.

One poet of the day that wrote about the Aeolian Harp was Percy Bysshe Shelley. Below you will find one of his works. Enjoy.

ODE TO THE WEST WIND

by: Percy Bysshe Shelly (1792-1822)

I.

WILD West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being,

Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead

Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,

Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,

Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou,

Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed

The wingèd seeds, where they lie cold and low,

Each like a corpse within its grave, until

Thine azure sister of the spring shall blow

Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill

(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)

With living hues and odors plain and hill:

Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere;

Destroyer and preserver; hear, oh, hear!

II.

Thou on whose stream, 'mid the steep sky's commotion,

Loose clouds like earth's decaying leaves are shed,

Shook from the tangled boughs of Heaven and Ocean,

Angels of rain and lightning: there are spread

On the blue surface of thine airy surge,

Like the bright hair uplifted from the head

Of some fierce Mænad, even from the dim verge

Of the horizon to the zenith's height,

The locks of the approaching storm. Thou dirge

Of the dying year, to which this closing night

Will be the dome of a vast sepulchre,

Vaulted with all thy congregated might

Of vapors, from whose solid atmosphere

Black rain, and fire, and hail, will burst: oh hear!

III.

Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams

The blue Mediterranean, where he lay,

Lulled by the coil of his crystalline streams,

Beside a pumice isle in Baiæ's bay,

And saw in sleep old palaces and towers

Quivering within the wave's intenser day,

All overgrown with azure moss and flowers

So sweet, the sense faints picturing them! Thou

For whose path the Atlantic's level powers

Cleave themselves into chasms, while far below

The sea-blooms and the oozy woods which wear

The sapless foliage of the ocean, know

Thy voice, and suddenly grow gray with fear,

And tremble and despoil themselves: oh, hear!

IV.

If I were a dead leaf thou mightest bear;

If I were a swift cloud to fly with thee;

A wave to pant beneath thy power, and share

The impulse of thy strength, only less free

Than thou, O uncontrollable! if even

I were as in my boyhood, and could be

The comrade of thy wanderings over heaven,

As then, when to outstrip thy skyey speed

Scarce seemed a vision; I would ne'er have striven

As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need.

Oh! lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!

I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!

A heavy weight of hours has chained and bowed

One too like thee: tameless, and swift, and proud.

V.

Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is;

What if my leaves are falling like its own!

The tumult of thy mighty harmonies

Will take from both a deep, autumnal tone,

Sweet though in sadness. Be thou, Spirit fierce,

My spirit! Be thou me, impetuous one!

Drive my dead thoughts over the universe

Like withered leaves to quicken a new birth!

And, by the incantation of this verse,

Scatter, as from an extinguished hearth

Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!

Be through my lips to unwakened earth

The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind,

If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog - I look forward to having you return.

Safe Journeys
Steve

What is a Wind Harp?

Once upon a time, when there was no surrounding noise in the world and man still had time for patient listening, the aeolian harp was crafted. Many people may know of them from literature but few know it by their sounds.

The aeolian harp's very special tones/ tone combinations cannot be created by man by any "conventional" action on the strings whatever (like bowing, plucking rubbing etc.).

Often, several tones at one time can be heard on only one string. Depending on the wind-speed, new tones appear, while other tones begin to disappear.

Have you ever listened to the sound of the wind and gloried in its power? You are in good company! The music of the Aeolian harp inspired many poets such as Wordsworth, Emerson, and Coleridge, who wrote of its ethereal melodies. The naturalist writer and poet Henry David Thoreau built his own wind harps, being inspired, in part, by the sounds he heard from telegraph wires as the winds brought them to life.

Wind harps have the distinction of being the only strung instrument whose music is composed entirely of harmonic tones. This gives wind harps a vibrant resonance not heard in ordinary music. Wind harps are also the only strung instrument played solely by the wind. These two characteristics combine to create a music that for many people is especially alluring.



When reviewing descriptions of harps and kits for sale, you can reference this diagram. If a harp is said to have a Poplar body, that would mean that the sides as well as the ends are made from poplar. Some harps have different ends to sides, in which case that will be specified.

About the Artist

STEVEN CAMERON

Steven D. Cameron, a native of Guelph, Ontario, is an Adrian Michigan based craftsman with an interest in all areas of fine wood working including windharps, wood/canvas canoes, and other commission wooden items of interest.

Steve is a geologist by trade, and studied at Sir Sandford Fleming College in Lindsay, ON. He has always been in awe of the properties of earth, wind, fire, and water and how they combine to create powerful contrasts and creations in our world. During his time in the North Country, Steve reveled in the sound and power of the wind blowing through the trees and across the landscape of the boreal forest.

His interest in wind harps began through his studies at DePaul University (Chicago IL), while taking a class on creativity and imagination. He continually read about wind harps and their influence on the creativity of 19th century artists such as Thoreau, Chopin, and Shelley. Though his continued research, Steve discovered that wind harps were the perfect medium for combining his love of wood (earth) and wind.

Each CAMEX wind harp is crafted individually by hand. They are made of a variety of domestic hard and soft woods. These woods are all derived from a sustainable source so as not to damage the future of the environment. The size and grain of the wood actually dictates the parameters of each instrument. This is what gives each CAMEX wind harp its own unique sound.

This is Steve’s inaugural year presenting and selling his work and in May 2008 will be participating in his first show. His work as an emerging artist is being well received, as he is enjoying a high success rate for juried fairs and has been accepted for an upcoming solo exhibition at the Croswell Gallery in the Croswell Opera House (circa 1844).

CAMEX is the result of the inspiration to enjoy life to the fullest by developing your best self in accordance with nature and your natural surroundings. The mission of CAMEX is to provide resources to enjoy your natural world, whether it be a windharp or a sailing canoe, so that others may live a more fulfilling life through the subtle joys of natural experiences.

The union of being ‘green’ and feeding the soul.

Windharps.net gets a blog!

Windharps.net home of Steve Cameron's windharp creations is now hosting a blog!

Expect to see posts on the creation of windharps, the latest offerings available through windharps.net, directions for putting together a windharp kit, this history of Aeolian (wind) harps, and a lot more musings and ramblings of their creator artisan Steven Cameron!