This is my first attempt at building an ancient Greek lyre called a chelys. A chelys uses a turtle or tortoise shell for the resonator behind the strings.

I built it using maple for the body parts (limbs, pegs, bridge). The crossbar is made using red oak from a tree that fell on my property several years ago. The fret on the crossbar and the foot under the bridge are both poplar. I built the tailpiece from brass, the resonating face is goatskin.

The crossbar is held in place with leather thongs. The resonator is made from a red slider turtle shell I bought at a thrift store (in the US it is an invasive, non-endangered animal). The wrist strap, called a telamon, is made from wool. The strings are artificial (nylon). Wood is finished with Watco oil. The overall length is 24″ (61cm), width is 16″ (40cm), and max depth is 4.5″ (11.4cm).