I bought this kit on a whim a few months ago and it’s finally finished! I wanted to take the road less traveled and instead of just assembling this ukulele kit, I decided to add some texture and pattern to the body of the instrument. Here’s how I added a little pizzazz to this kit with just a stencil and a woodburning tool.
Supplies:
- DIY Ukulele Kit
- Stencil Girl Art Deco Wallpaper Stencil by Nathalie Kalbach
- Walnut Hollow Woodburning Tool
Instructions:
Before assembling the ukulele kit, place the stencil over the entire body of the instrument and trace the pattern lightly with a pencil.
Trace and fill in each pencil drawn shape with the woodburning tool. I used the standard pointed tip to fill in each shape, but in hindsight, it would have been much easier to trace the outline of each shape with the pointed tip, then use the iron-shaped tip to fill in each shape.
Finish by assembling the instrument according to the instructions.
A Review of the DIY Ukulele Kit:
Will my instrument ever play music? No, but it was a lot of fun to make. For someone who is more assembly/woodworking savvy, they may be able to make a competent instrument, but I had some trouble getting the pieces to line up squarely. In fact, the neck got jammed while trying to slide it in place and I had to hit it with a hammer to get the piece to finally line up with the body of the instrument.
However, I didn’t have high hopes for a playable instrument to begin with, so I’m not disappointed. I was hoping to just decorate it as an art project, which was an incredibly fun way to spend some spare time.
This would be a wonderful project for a parent to help their child with. The child could decorate their instrument and personalize it, then the parent could assemble it. A child probably would still have fun with the chronically out of tune instrument too. As a musician, I can’t get the instrument to tune up and that’s a deal breaker for me.