THE CREATION OF A HANDPAN...
Heliton handpans are created in close contact with the wild-wild nature and cultural atmosphere surrounding the workshops in Estonia and in Ireland. I take high care in connecting with the intention and energy of the person, of the particular pan in creation and simply allow it all to come together into a beautiful work of musical art.
I mainly use stainless steel and form the shells with pneumatic and hand hammers. Other half of the handpans are created from pre-made top quality nitrided and stainless steel shells from Ayasa makers-shop.
Nitrided shells/stainless steel shells are ready for tone-field creation. When the Ding and tone-fields are ready, it’s all about tuning and heating, tuning and heating. Everything is done in calm awareness and in connection with the material.
Finally, I craft the bottomside and glue the two hemispheres together. Now it’s up to the time to do it’s thing. The glue has to dry. A nice and slow process takes up to one week and after that, the instrument is ready for final touches: fine-tuning (sometimes done with natural stones), cleaning, engraving.
I do not number the instrument, instead, we give them names that reflect their character or purpose.
And..voila! Ready to change to world, sound by sound!