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Ideas and inspirations
Off-beat Violins

Off-beat Violins

A collection of instruments for tonal and aesthetic exploration. This began as a Covid project. I'd long wanted to make an instrument that showed off some of the the attractive stages that the violin goes through during the construction process. The Dimpled Viola made...

Cellular fiddles  Part 2:   X’s and O’s

Cellular fiddles Part 2: X’s and O’s

In part 1, I described a plan to make a pair of violins with structural features that I think will have effects on the way those instruments sound.  I decided to base the designs for the two violins  around two of the vibrational modes that have been studied and used as tools by many violinmakers in an attempt to control the tonal qualities of our instruments.  This second part describes the designs that I came up with for the two fiddles I intend to build. 

Carving a shop sign

Carving a shop sign

For some years I've dabbled in the graphic arts, designing business cards, web headers, even tee shirts and stickers. I've come to enjoy lettering in all forms: dashed off handwriting, Arabic script, cuneiform tablets, grand graffiti, painted pub signs, classic fonts...