Courtesy photo Heidi De Falla poses with the Flaminco guitar she made by hand this winter in Spain. The instrument was a gift to her musician father.

HOUGHTON — There are many reasons why someone would want to visit Spain. The history, the landscape, festivals such as the Running of the Bulls and, of course, the food. For Heidi de Falla, of Houghton, her extended visit to Spain last March was for a very specific reason with a very special outcome.

Heidi, 21, spent the month of March in Malaga, Spain studying the art of guitar building. She studied under renowned guitar builder Pablo Requena. She returned home with the fruits of her labor, an impressive handmade Classical Guitar, which she presented to her father Lee de Falla, a composer and guitarist.

For the 2023 graduate of Houghton High School, making something by hand wasn’t anything new. “I’ve been working with my hands for as long as I can remember. It began with crafting: jewelry making, knitting, sewing, latch hook and working with any fabrics and patterns that I could get my hands on.”

Heidi’s interest in guitar making came naturally, growing up with a professional guitarist and, she said, “having a propensity to high level woodworking skills in my family line.”

Her Spanish guitar wasn’t Heidi’s first foray in the art of wood craft. After working out of high school restoring and refinishing furniture at a local antique shop, she said she was ready to take her woodworking to another level.

Her first visit to Spain came in the Summer of 2025. She traveled solo from the north to the south of Spain, experiencing live classical and flamenco performances the entire time. She happened upon her eventual instructor, Pablo Requena, while in Malaga, a city that lies in the Southern Iberian Peninsula on the Costa del Sol of the Mediterranean.

“I decided to build a Spanish Flamenco blanca style guitar,” she said. Blanca refers to the light colored cypress wood used for the back and sides of the guitar. “Flamenco is a vibrant art form that combines singing, guitar playing, and dance, originating from the Andalusian Roma of southern Spain,” she said, adding it is characterized by its emotional intensity and complex rhythms.

For her guitar she chose a European spruce top, a Spanish cypress back and sides and a Spanish cedar neck with an ebony fret board. “I built the guitar using traditional techniques with hand tools,” de Falla said. She designed and carved her own head stock and rosette using the traditional solera mold as well as rope binding technique. “The soundboard bracing pattern is based off Marcelo Barbero, a historical Spanish luthier.” She said this particular bracing system controls the tonal abilities of the guitar. “All in all, over 160 hours of work went into the guitar,” Heidi said.

After about a month Heidi returned home with her labor of love in tow and presented it to her father, who, she says was, “extremely delighted.”

However, the situation was akin to giving a Copper Country child a new bike for Christmas. He loved it and is excited to play it … just not yet. “So once I gave it to him he couldn’t quite play it the way he wanted to. It was pretty much just wood with no protection. We have since added French polish to it. It’s still curing, but once it’s done he will record an album with it. He was extremely delighted when I gave it to him, he’s itching to really play it now!” 

Heidi says everything indicates it is a fine instrument. “The guitar sounds fantastic, just as a flamenco guitar should sound. The cypress really does give it that rasp that’s needed. It will take time to fully open, but that’s to be expected with a spruce top.”

Not one to rest on her laurels, Heidi said that now that project is completed, on to the next one. “I’m collecting wood and tools to complete my own workshop and then I’ll start on my next guitar build.”

You can follow Heidi’s journey on Instagram under Heidi de Falla Lutherie, and she is currently working on Facebook. Or you might run into her the old fashioned way. She says if you want to wish her well, might find her “hustling around the Ambassador Restaurant in Houghton serving pizzas and saving money.”

Her goals is to become a master luthier, which will take years, “but I just know I’ve found something that I love to do.”