#violin making

[luthiest]

04.04.25

spring?!?!?

we’re soooooooooo back

🎧 : man on the moon - brockhampton

[camilleisback]

Let's continue Stradivari's legacy with mama

[finneroo]

Hey lads, the Newark Violin Making School is under risk of closure due to the university attached to it essentially trying to get around having to pay a full time staff there. I trained at the college, a couple of my mates who I studied with now teach there. It's a fantastic institution and would be a real tragedy if it closed. Here's a petition trying to keep it open:

Sign the Petition

Save the Newark School of Instrument Making!

[pierrotrot]

4.13.2025

this past weekend i got to speak to a number of violin makers about their work and their experiences. it really puts into perspective what a career can look like. everything has begun to feel a bit more real since completing my first instrument back in February. it’s kind of unreal actually. like ? what do you mean i made that with my hands? it’s also been interesting to think about how this is the longest amount of time and effort that i have ever put into a project. i can’t think of anything else that i have worked on actively for a year and a half….

number two is already in the works and it seems to be moving at least slightly faster and certainly is looking nicer (it helps that my eye has improved vastly since beginning my first instruement). currently manifesting spring weather and renewed motivation <3

[do-ri-mi-fa-sol-la-si-do]

This painting “Violin Maker Otto Möckel in his Workshop” was painted in 1921 by artist Fritz Tennigkeit. It depicts Otto Möckel, a renowned German luthier in the early 1900s, in his shop, applying varnish to one of his fine violins.

[02nique02]

[darlingtons-voyster-inactive]

This is a weird niche PSA that won't reach anyone but I NEED to say it okay if you or your child plays the violin and it breaks DO NOT TRY TO FIX IT YOURSELF!!! DON'T!!!! I know you think you know how wood and glue works and I'm sure in most circumstances you do but please I'm begging you DO NOT. Even if you're crafty and do DIY projects all the time. Don't even ask that close personal friend who likes to woodwork UNLESS THEY KNOW TO USE THE RIGHT GLUE.

Here is why: Violins are glued using a very certain kind of glue, usually called animal or hide glue. It is, as it sounds, made using animal hide and yes it is kind of gross and smells funny, but also it has very specific properties and people who repair instruments RELY on these properties to fix the instrument!! It absorbs into the wood and sucks them together to make a very strong bond, but it shatters if it's put under too much pressure which usually saves the wood of the instrument. It is, unshockingly, much easier to glue things back together than it is to repair a split or cracked plate. It will also release if it is made warm and wet which means that if a repairman ever needs to take something off to fix it or something else, THEY CAN!! Lastly, you can also minutely control the strength of this glue by adjusting the water/crystal ratio when you're making it which is great for gluing it in different places that need different strengths for different reasons that I'm not going to get into. If you use ANOTHER kind of glue, best case scenario next time someone tries to repair your instrument they will have to take a lot of extra time to do so. WORST case scenario, they break your fucking instrument or can't repair it at all, and depending on how much your instrument is worth you may end up getting a new once since the repair will be worth more than the instrument itself.

Source: I'm the fucker who has to repair your instrument and I just had to spend an hour on a five minute job because some probably well-meaning parent glued their child's fingerboard on using some fucking wood glue (and did it a couple mm crooked which is an enormous margin of error in violins). This one was lucky because whatever glue they used was dissolvable in alcohol or I wouldn't have been able to fix it at all but as it is I just had to spend a bunch of time cleaning and scraping it off. I'm ALSO the fucker who just had to rip a fucking viola belly off of its ribs and split off a ridiculous amount of wood at the same time because someone else did the same thing to it. I can't get the split wood off the ribs because I can't find a way to get the glue to release and the instrument isn't worth enough for a big costly repair so I'm just going to glue it back on as-is once I've fixed the crack in it I took it off to tend to and hope that none of it will buzz and ruin the sound of the instrument.

[azureviolins]

I have an idea brewing in my head and I can’t let it go. 🤓

It’s got me SO excited. But it’s really “raw” right now (so please be gentle 🙃).

However, did I mention that it’s got me SUPER excited?

And how I’d love to involve you?

A little backstory...

For years, I’ve been getting messages from people who had questions like “how do I learn more about taking care of my violin?”🥺

I had never really considered having a digital course for violinists to have support outside a shop or random blogs online.

But, the more questions I got like this, the more my wheels got turning. I started to see where we could make maintenance accessible to violinists not near a shop or who just want to be proactive when taking care of their instrument and bow.

I’m jazzed up thinking about a course dedicated to helping violinists and how it could help make progress towards fewer confused and secretly embarrassed violinists in the world (I was once one, so I know the feeling🤫😬).

Currently, this idea is very rough around the edges. It’s definitely not perfect (yet) and there are many things we still need to work out.

If you join me as a founding member and you’re willing to help contribute ideas on how we can make this THE best online program to support violinists in having some peace of mind with their equipment, I’m willing to extend a very favorable “founding member” price.

When this offer is officially listed, I anticipate the starting price for this to be around $97 (which will be a no brainer given that we’ll help people potentially save money by cutting down the trips to the shop.) Here’s the best part though...

Join me today as a founding member and your price will be $67 (good until 1/23/21).

The goal is to have the first class in this course on February 15th!

All you need to do is simply DM me and say, “YES! I’m In!”

Cheers! And I’ll see you soon!