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The Face Within the Lute

Bringing the Enchanted Lute Into Reality

One of the most unusual elements of The Face Within the Lute is the enchanted lute, an instrument that has a dark and mysterious presence throughout the story.

In 2019, when the second edition of The Face Within the Lute had already been published in Spanish, I was invited to participate in an event called Sábado Sobrenatural (Supernatural Saturday), held in Seville, to present the book. Well, I had an idea! I would create the enchanted lute, bringing it to life so I could take it to the event.

It was an exciting project, but I had the idea a week before and that was the time my husband (who didn’t hesitate to join the adventure) and I had to create this instrument.

Here's how we created the enchanted lute, step by step:

The construction of the lute begins: Wood, wood, and more wood

Like any creative project, the first step was the idea, but we had to get down to work. First of all, we had to get hold of the main materials.

This jumble of wood had to become the lute...

And we had to start from the inside, so the first thing we built was the frame of the lute.

One of the parts that required the most care was the process by which the wood had to take shape. Broadly speaking, what we did was moisten it and fix it firmly in the desired shape so that when it dried, it would take on the look we were after.

We also had to make sure that the structure was strong enough.

The exterior and the face

Once the skeleton of the lute was built, we had to define the exterior elements. One of the most important was the front and its texture, which we achieved by first drawing the shapes that needed to be carved and then using different types of gouges to create an irregular and gloomy surface, as described in the book.

For the face, I acquired a costume mask whose eyes and forehead matched my idea of what the grotesque face would look like and also resembled the one on the cover of the novel. It was painted white. This is a test with the carved front surface and the face in the hollow:

Later, we decided to add a circuit to create eyes for the face so that they would light up.

This was integrated into the frame of the lute and the neck.

Then, all the pieces of the lute were joined together and the back was covered with strips of wood, masking tape, cardboard, and strips of paper with glue.

The paint and final details

The back was painted a plain brown color similar to the color used on the front. We chose a shade of paint that emulated old wood, also for the face that emerges from inside the lute, so that it would blend in with the instrument.

As an anecdote, I'll tell you that we finally put the strings on it on Saturday morning, the same day that the event took place in the afternoon.

The result

Here is the finished lute!

And here it is at the book presentation at Sábado Sobrenatural.

We started the project without knowing for sure if we would have time to finish it in time for the presentation, but after overcoming some obstacles that we encountered along the way, we achieved the goal we set for ourselves! And we also had a lot of fun.

But the story doesn't end in 2019...

Later, in 2024, with the current Spanish edition (published by LACUHE Ediciones), I presented this entire process at the event El Poder de la Imaginación (The Power of Imagination).

This event was a motivational talk for the young people of Lidertura, organized by the writer and great friend Samuel Acosta Ynoa, in which both he and the invited guests discussed various topics related to how we can create through our imagination. Regarding The Face Within the Lute, I shared the adventure of creating the enchanted lute.

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This is the translation of an article I wrote about the adventure of creating the enchanted lute, first shared on my blog under the title Trayendo el laúd encantado a la realidad.