16 / matters magazine / hearth & home 2019 I magine a gourd the size of a bowling ball or an old metal washtub – the sort meant for scrubbing laundry against a washboard. Could these utilitarian objects be a source of music to your ears? South Orange resident Jeremy Osner thinks so. He’s on a quest to repur- pose unusual materials into warm-sounding stringed instruments, a journey that began last summer. Back in June, at the start of a weeklong instrument-making workshop in Long Branch, luthier Jeff Menzies from Kingston, Jamaica, handed him a large gourd. For most people, the hollow pear-shaped veg- etable might not have conjured up the vision of a musical instrument. But musical exploration runs deep in Osner’s family: his mother is a Suzuki flute teacher, his father photographs musicians, both sisters attended con- servatory, and his brother is a musicologist. Osner himself, a software engineer by day at Audible, has a passion for diving deep into the mysteries of music by learning to play unusual string instruments. You may have even caught him around town plucking the si- tar at Porchfest in Maplewood, playing his Stroh violin at a Hat City open mic, or thrumming the dilruba (a 300-year-old Asian string instrument) at a South Orange house concert. A special request from Osner’s musically-inclined daughter gave him the impetus to create an unusual instrument, just like the ones he en- joys playing. For her 2018 graduation gift from Columbia High School: a banjolele (short strings like a ukulele, shape like a banjo). Over the course of five days, he carved the pear-shaped hollow gourd, stretched and mounted a goatskin on its face, and cut and sanded a cherry wood neck, all under Menzies’ guidance. The result: a unique hybrid of two folk instruments from half a world apart. Strummin’ on the Old Washtub Cello Could a metal washtub do more than hold wet laundry? BY ELLEN KAHANER Jeremy Osner repurposes unusual materials into stringed instruments like this washtub cello.