This post is about variety in violins, why it is important, where it come from, and how it has been influenced by mechanization. I will also look at the effects and possibilities of digitization on modern violinmaking. Every violin that you come across is slightly...
Controlled Randomness and the search for a good, honest violin finish.
Antiquing. Why it is attractive, and what's wrong with it. I normally antique my instruments and I do it for two main reasons: for visual richness, and for variety. Visual richness and variety are two features of objects that have aged naturally and Nature is supreme...
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...
The Tabolin. Part1. Concept
Following on from earlier experimental fiddles I’ve been thinking of making a violin with very thin areas or cells in the upper and lower bouts. This has led to the idea of a violin with many drum like panels.
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.
Cellular Fiddles Part 1: Braces, Modes and the Possibilities of Shaping Sound
The idea of "Cellular Fiddles" has evolved out of two earlier projects. The Dimpled Viola made a feature of some of the visually interesting rough carving of a violin that normally get lost in the finished instrument. The Turtle Fiddle which took one of the visual...
Turtle Fiddle
This is a follow up to the Dimpled Viola project and develops some of the ideas sparked by that project. With the viola I made an instrument that made a feature of the gouge work that appears in early stages of carving an instrument but that normally gets completely...
The Flipper
Here's a short video In which I reveal some of the lesser known secrets of The Old Master
Dimpled Viola, an Etude. Part 2, Finishing
In the first part of this study I constructed a viola emphasizing a part of the construction process, the carving, which is visually very interesting but that most players never get to see. In this second part, I consider the surface finish and explore the decorative...
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...