Comments about Conda Adjustable Lyre Easel:

Easel is sturdy however, getting it together is ridiculous the instruction are awful, there are to little gold pieces left over and I have no ideal where they belong. Once I got it together (which I did myself with no help from the instructions) the easel seemed to be a good item.

Comments about Conda Adjustable Lyre Easel:

i thought the price was too good to be true and it was. the instructions look like they were xeroxed from a wet piece of crumpled paper- unreadable. blick has a pdf file that is no better, makes no sense- have to figure out everything yourself. the pieces don't fit together well, you need a hammer to pound them. i called customer serive and was put on hold. i notice complaints have gone back a year so blick is really dropping the ball with this. guy at store said 3o minute assembly. i gave up after 2 hours.

Comments about Conda Adjustable Lyre Easel:

I rated this with 5 stars because well number 1 it is a great value. However, much like the other people who left responses, the directions were absolutely horrible! I'm no dummy, I have a college degree and these were just impossible to follow. I bought it because I knew I would eventually figure it out. The picture on the box was helpful but still have 2 remaining pieces not accounted for,I have no idea where they go. Maybe you'll have a better go of it. Still a good deal for the money.

Comments about Conda Adjustable Lyre Easel:

Buy the easel. Yes, the assembly directions are horrible but not prohibitively so. Assembled, it is fantastic. I have seen it elsewhere for a much higher price.

Comments about Conda Adjustable Lyre Easel:

Left over are 2 wood squares with gold clips on them, 2 gold flat plates, and a big barrel that probably goes in the tool tray that wouldn't fit with no idea where they go. Instructions were unreadable; you can't read the numbers or see the photos clearly. The pdf on the website is different and equally vague. Expect to take over 60 minutes to assemble. It was impossible to assemble in the order they suggested. Read the review of 1/2/11 for a helpful suggestion. Price is right and reason for recommendation.

Comments about Conda Adjustable Lyre Easel:

Come on people! I read the reviews before buying this easel and was reluctant to buy it based on people complaining about the instructions. Then I decided to go for it because it's a good value. I'm so glad I did! All it takes is some BRAINS and imagination to put this together! It's really not that difficult to figure out the construction of this easel without the instructions. My suggestion is to lay everything out on the floor and study the picture. It makes perfect sense once everything is out of it's packaging. I honestly believe a lot of these complaints are just from sheer laziness. I assembled it without the instructions in under 30 minutes. What kinds of "visual" artists are you anyway?? haha! A great easel for a great price. Highly recommended for those with some brains and patience.

Comments about Conda Adjustable Lyre Easel:

The easel certainly meets my need and I like the easel. My problem was the instructions. The pictures and the writing was of such poor quality...they were so bad I could hardly read them. It was as if the copies of instructions had been copied over and over and that the ink cartridge was out of ink. Had I not looked at a friends easel, I would have packed this easel up and sent it back. I would not recommend this to a friend simply because of the instructions, not the easel itself.

Comments about Conda Adjustable Lyre Easel:

I would agree that the poorly written and incomplete directions discourage many potential buyers. I was lucky because my son had previously put several of these together in art class at his high school. He said that it was a struggle to put together and only after spending time on one, was he able to put the rest together for the teacher. I could see that the sparse amount of information in the directions would make it hard for the average buyer to successfully put the easel together in a normal amount of time. Dick Blick would do a service for their customers by including more step by step instructions or a PDF file on the website. Once put together, it is a fine easel. Thank you son.

Comments about Conda Adjustable Lyre Easel:

Hardware to fasten pieces together was missing and the directions were dark ard unreadable! I will have to get something else when I can afford to! And there was no way to fasten the legs and pieces together!

Comments about Conda Adjustable Lyre Easel:

Got this for my girlfriend's 2010 X-mas gift. She loved it right away! Only disappointment were the instructions; weren't well detailed. But quality was great! It wasn't wobbly, as she only uses small to medium sized canvas, nothing too big for this easel.