ATTENTION: This guy is awesome.

My harp-making husband and I have spent the last day or so drooling over this site:  http://crab.rutgers.edu/~pbutler/instrum.html

Paul Butler, aka Master Arden of Icombe, is a laurel in the East Kingdom who's dabbled quite successfully in medieval lutherie.  He's made a number of stringed instruments, chiefly from the medieval period although he's got one super-ancient lyre and one ren/baroque pochette.  He has detailed descriptions and pictures of the process he went through to make the instruments, which is obviously awesome.  Perhaps even more awesome - most of his pages include recordings of the instruments being played, and he's achieved some really nice sounds.  No recording of the Anglo Saxon lyre, though, which makes me sad, but it's pretty enough and in good enough company that I'm still overall quite happy. :-D  (Mostly I just want one.  Hearing one is the next best thing.  Seeing how one was made is a close third).

No harps, but that's ok because he plays them!  Check out the second mp3 - that's his gothic harp with the brays on.  Neat, huh?  Waaaaaaaaaant.

So nooooooooooow I want a rebec and a citole and an Anglo Saxon lyre (ok, I already wanted an Anglo Saxon lyre, but his site didn't exactly dissuade me).  Harps first.  Harps.  Harpsharpsharps.  Actually bookshelves first.  :-P  Then new folk harps, then a gothic harp and that's all if I'm reeeeeeeeally nice to my super-sexy-talented husband.  :-D  LOVE YOU HONEY!!!!  (harps)