A few sounds
One or two of the instruments we have available for the Festive Season can be heard in these clips.
Long neck Baritone Uke.
Unfortunately, it is me playing them, rather than someone who really can, but they give you a reasonable idea of the sounds they make. Recorded straight onto the camera with no gimmickry prior to being crunched by youtube!
More details on each on the For Sale page
Yew top Tenor
Plain Soprano
8 String Tenor
Baritone cutaway
Pure Craft Market November
The first Saturday in November is the date for the Craft Village’s next Pure Craft Market. With a number of visiting Crafters, along with the ten resident Craftspeople, it is the ideal place to choose a unique gift for the forthcoming festive season. The goods on offer are all hand made by local experts, or you can book lessons and learn the crafts yourself in some cases.
The Market runs from 10am until around 4pm and entrance, as well as parking, is free. Don’t miss it!
Ukulele
Here is one that made me smile!
My Name is Wally..
Quex House
My name is Wally, and I’m Walnut. That’s the wood I’m talking about, not the seed I was grown from. I was born back in 1785, or maybe 1783. It depends on when you count a tree being born, when the seed is planted in a growing pot, or when the young sapling is planted out in it’s permanent location. I was put in quite a nice place, in front of a big house along with a few of my brothers and some other relatives. I remember that when we were young we were quite well looked after by a man in baggy trousers and a big flat cap. It took a few years, but it wasn’t long Read more…
Nice surprise. :)
My daughter Lorraine came into the unit the other day and really surprised me. She has never shown any interest in singing, and, a year ago, couldn’t play a single note on the guitar!
There is hope for all of us! Well done Lorraine.
Smugglers Festival
The weekend was spent at the excellent Smugglers Festival, held in a field somewhere between Deal and Dover (It took me one and a half hours to find it, and I knew where it was being held!!) The feedback we got was little short of amazing, with a constant stream of compliments about our ‘beautiful’ instruments. The most interest, throughout the weekend, was Read more…
Update
We will be closed over the weekend 31st August to 3rd September in the workshop at Quex, but that is only because we will be attending the Smugglers Folk Festival somewhere between Deal and Dover. 
We will have a number of instruments on display, including that Read more…
Three Tenors
The website has been quiet of late, mainly because the workshop has been busy! Andy’s and Ian’s Concert models have been delivered, along with the completion a couple of project instruments, a Bass Cuatrolele or Q-Bass (whichever you want to call it!) and an 8 string tenor which can be seen on the left in this image. Despite both being 1st build pattern models as far as we are concerned, the results have been particularly pleasing, both in Read more…
Pure Craft Market
We’ve had a busy weekend at the Craft Village, preparing for and running our first Pure Craft Market.
The idea was to promote not just the Craft Village, but also Pure Crafts rather than the ‘gift’ fairs that have spread across the County, and probably the Country!
Everything on display (and for sale) has been hand crafted by local crafters, not just those resident in the village, but invited others also. It turned out to be quite a successful day!
Living Water Strings
Ken Middleton, ukulele player extraordinaire, and a well known figure in the world of Ukuleles, has 
produced his own range of Ukulele strings. He swears by them, and I have always respected the gentleman. But is he, in this case, a little biased?
All the Ukes we produce are fitted with Aquila ‘Nylgut’ strings as standard. They are popular, sound good and are made in Europe rather than the Far East. Ken’s strings, however, proclaim to be ‘Made in Heaven’, although I understand that that is somewhere in England!
So, the only fair thing to do was to give them a try. Using a Tenor cutaway Uke finished recently, which has quite Read more…
