My harp-making masters are :

  Paul Doyle, harp-maker in Ireland, founder-director of the Irish School of Lutherie

  Gildas Jaffrenou, one of the greatest harp-makers of the 20^th century.

I am a graduate of the Irish School of Lutherie, therefore I work artisanally following the rules of the art, without any complicated woodworking tools. I manufacture everything myself from planks, except of course the strings and the semitone systems.

I use thouroughly dried wood, such as spruce or plywood for the sound tables , maple, lime-tree,walnut or cherry for the body, the neck and pillar.

To get a very nice sound, the thickness of the different parts of the body is important. I then brush on between five and ten coats of varnish, sanding by hand between each coat.

The manufacture of a harp takes around 300 hours of careful and precise work. Alfaric Harps have the exclusivity of having distinctive back openings in the shape of heart, making them easy to recognize.

Three types of string materials are available: nylon, composites or bronze. The choice influences the price of the harp.