Above: This snowman created by bolting three drums together sold at the 2015 Band of Angels Silent Auction. Creators Tammy and Rick Haddix constructed the clarinet arms so that they can be bent slightly into a new position. Right: Artist Bob Hurlburt stands next to the water bird he created for the 2015 Band of Angels auction. The bird took only three days to create. The frog in the bird’s mouth was a last-minute decision when Hurlburt was sweeping his workspace and discovered a small trumpet part that “looked like a frog.”
as a Keepsake artist for Hallmark. Her hus- band Rick is an electrician and likes to cre- ate wood objects in his spare time. Tammy and Rick bounce ideas back and forth, and work as a team to develop artwork for the Band of Angels auction. Tammy said that when she goes to Meyer Music to select raw materials she waits for something to speak to her. In 2015, one of the objects that spoke to her was a drum set. “When I was looking at the instruments I saw this drum set,” she said. “I had done an ornament in Keepsakes (that) was a music shop and in the window was a snowman made out of a drum set.” She decided to create a life-size version of the drum set snowman, with clarinet arms, a handmade hat of foam, and a scarf. The drums are bolted together so that the snowman will stand, and the snowman’s clarinet arms were made so that they can be bent slightly. The couple also created a bassoon lamp in 2015. They cleaned up the instrument, left it
whole, and Rick wired it. “We like to make things that are kind of functional,” said Tammy. “The snowman was not. It was more decorative. But things that are functional really seem to sell well at the auction.” Last year, Tammy and Rick took four pieces to the auction: a banjo with a wooden stand, a cornet lamp, a trumpet lamp, and a violin de- coupaged with violin sheet music and mounted on ceiling tile. Tammy chose decoupage for the violin because the instrument was badly worn. When Tammy first saw the banjo it was in pieces, or she thought it was. There was a sep- arate Bacon banjo resonator. Tammy thought Rick might use it as a base for the banjo, but Rick didn’t want to drill holes in the resona- tor. They connected the resonator to the banjo and replaced the banjo’s torn head with a new one. Rick also created a stand made of cherry wood with a walnut wood inset and put a light on the top of the stand. “The instruments are so beautiful by them-
selves,” Tammy said. “They’re like pieces of art by themselves so it’s almost our chance to show them off as an art piece.” Both Tammy and Hurlburt said that the allure of the Band of Angels auction is the uniqueness of art made from musical instru- ments and the various ways artists find to repurpose the instruments. ^ Deborah Young is a freelance writer from Overland Park, KS, who has an interest in all things musical. She also composes music and plays keyboards. She can be reached at dkayyoung@hotmail.com.
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