Let me introduce myself, I am Peter Bromwich and I live in the Vale of Pewsey in Wiltshire with my lovely wife, Diane.
I started making hammered dulcimers in the early 1980’s. The first one I made was from plans I got from the Smithsonian institute after an exchange of letters that took about 2 months and culminating in me going to my banks to get an international cheque for about $20 to send them for the pamphlets and plans I wanted. Something you would probably download for free during your tea break! I made a dozen dulcimers in various styles, floating and fixed soundboards, solid and plywood soundboards, deep and shallow bases and was really starting to get into it when disaster struck, I started doing well at work and got totally absorbed into my job! Sadly I stopped making and playing the dulcimer, maybe knocking out a few tunes every now and again, but mammon had got me.
However I never really stopped making things and in 2012 I went on a week long woodworking course at the Boat Building Academy in Lyme Regis. Following that I made a wooden Canadian canoe which my wife and I use on the nearby canal.
In 2015 having stopped working full time I went on a 12 week residential woodworking skills and furniture design and making course at Lyme Regis. I am proud to say I achieved my City and Guilds Level 1 Certificate in construction and Level 3 Boat Academy Diploma in furniture design and constuction at the end of the course. My final project was to build a hammered dulcimer with some of the new skills I had learnt. The picture shows me playing it at the local pub on folk night.
Here are some of the furniture projects undertaken by students:
And my graduate case studyMy case study at the BBA
I have a workshop in my garden, I do not have a factory churning out endless instruments and small furniture, I also use hand tools and do not have any laser guided, computer driven cutting machines, so everything is made by my hand, in my workshop, and is unique.