The Stan Ceglinski Story

I started working with my hands at 6 years old, that is after both Mum and Dad telling me stuff and me watching them make and do things. Both Mum and Dad tried to do/make everything as money was very tight.
I made my first musical instrument when I was 17. A dulcimer type neck on a triangular ply-wood body salvaged from the dump along with other necessary hardware from a broken guitar from the dump.
The reaction to this first instrument was so great that I made 6 more, each a little different, finishing with a 4 string tenor banjo using a shop bought tambourine and the timber and machine heads from a salvaged guitar wreck, also from the dump (dumps were pretty casual back then (1972).
I heard Taj Mahal playing "Two Step Candyman" and I then taught myself by ear to tune to open "C" and learnt to pick this lovely piece.
I then left home and traveled Australia and with my girlfriend/later became my wife. We settled down in Mullumbimby where the following 30 years were devoted to turning a property into an interesting farm, complete with Blacksmith shop, Car repair (actually repair anything shop), a woodworking shop, a shingle mill, built a house for $700.00, sheds, fencing, looked after my wife and helped raise our 3 young boys to adulthood.
Then in about 2013, the desire to design and make/create musical instruments came back, but now we had a serious woodworking business and factory/workshop/studio and many years of woodworking experience under my belt.
Twenty years has also been spent, traveling around Australia to the finest Woodworking expo's where I would meet thousands of interesting folks, wood workers, demonstrators/others all the while being paid to demonstrate/entertain and educate folks with "traditional bush crafts and timber skills". Hand made instruments and playing and making them at my shows/presentations gathered momentum and alternative audiences from young to old.
So today, as I write this, I am planning festivals this year and I hope for many to come, demonstrating/teaching/work-shopping and sharing my skills, passion and experience to kids from about 4 years old to 80 or so years old - making musical instruments from "found" or salvaged materials and then learn to play - even a simple "groove".
"You gotta love life"
Stan Ceglinski
I made my first musical instrument when I was 17. A dulcimer type neck on a triangular ply-wood body salvaged from the dump along with other necessary hardware from a broken guitar from the dump.
The reaction to this first instrument was so great that I made 6 more, each a little different, finishing with a 4 string tenor banjo using a shop bought tambourine and the timber and machine heads from a salvaged guitar wreck, also from the dump (dumps were pretty casual back then (1972).
I heard Taj Mahal playing "Two Step Candyman" and I then taught myself by ear to tune to open "C" and learnt to pick this lovely piece.
I then left home and traveled Australia and with my girlfriend/later became my wife. We settled down in Mullumbimby where the following 30 years were devoted to turning a property into an interesting farm, complete with Blacksmith shop, Car repair (actually repair anything shop), a woodworking shop, a shingle mill, built a house for $700.00, sheds, fencing, looked after my wife and helped raise our 3 young boys to adulthood.
Then in about 2013, the desire to design and make/create musical instruments came back, but now we had a serious woodworking business and factory/workshop/studio and many years of woodworking experience under my belt.
Twenty years has also been spent, traveling around Australia to the finest Woodworking expo's where I would meet thousands of interesting folks, wood workers, demonstrators/others all the while being paid to demonstrate/entertain and educate folks with "traditional bush crafts and timber skills". Hand made instruments and playing and making them at my shows/presentations gathered momentum and alternative audiences from young to old.
So today, as I write this, I am planning festivals this year and I hope for many to come, demonstrating/teaching/work-shopping and sharing my skills, passion and experience to kids from about 4 years old to 80 or so years old - making musical instruments from "found" or salvaged materials and then learn to play - even a simple "groove".
"You gotta love life"
Stan Ceglinski
Stan is a big man with a big personality and even bigger heart. I first met him many years ago at one of the national woodshows and was impressed not only by his vast knowledge of bush and woodcraft, but his ability to engage and educate an audience through humour, music and wonder. I never miss an opportunity to accompany him on my ukulele while he dazzles people with instruments fashioned before their very eyes. His deep love of wood and music is embodied in every instrument and reaches its pinnacle with his finest ukuleles and guitars. Arbortech