Beauty may happen in the dynamics of lines, in the tension between strength and fragility, in the shimmering game between light and shadow ... This is what I love about violin making.
When Philip first told me we had to move the workshop out of Hassop Road, my initial feeling was apprehension. I knew this would be a big task ahead and I really had very little experience of how to manage this - How does one go about finding a new workshop? How will we move everything? But it didn’t take long for the excitement at the prospect of a new chapter to creep in between the worry of the logistics.
Diving headfirst into the mission, we scoured the internet and every resource we could find. Some prospective options arose and we enjoyed visiting new spaces, but rather soon we fell deep into the goldilocks effect - ‘Too big’, ‘Too small’, ‘Too much work needed’ etc… Then one day, Philip suggested the possibility of moving back to the space he had rented previously, in Robert Blair School, and suddenly ‘Ah, just right!’
I joined the team only in Autumn 2020 so I was in the minority position of never having been to, nevertheless worked in this space. I had, however, always heard Philip and Mathieu reminiscing fondly of their time there and I was thrilled to also get to experience it. Having seen pictures of this large, light, and open space, I thought we had hit the jackpot, however of course it was not going to be so easy!
On our first visit, it was clear time and neglect had played their part and work was going to need to be done before we could make this the workshops home again…
Philip and Mathieu at the first viewing
But still the important and characterful details remained, such as the stunning wooden floorboards and large, imposing windows, not to mention the sheer abundance of space!
The main workshop before the move
After a few hard weeks of planning, cleaning, stripping, sanding, painting, and building, we were ready to move in.
Philip really focussed on making sure each item of furniture was in the perfect place for both practicality and aesthetics and I enjoyed this peek into the makers mindset, The duality of functionality and beauty! Each of the workbenches were thoughtfully placed, so they were both autonomous and yet integrated. I too have been given special consideration; the desk is perfectly positioned to overlook all three of the workbenches (to keep a special eye on everyone!), we each have our own space and role to play and yet most importantly we can each easily interact with one another.
Independently together - Photo by Marius
The most important aspect of the new workshop for me, however, is the acoustics for testing the instruments. A large structure can be difficult, as it can be too boomy. Whilst this can be fun to play in, it can also be deceptive, as it often makes it difficult to really hear the true sound of the instrument. I am pleased to report that this is not a problem here! The acoustic panelling and large wall of wood storage has created the perfect uneven surface to deal with reflected sound.
Philip and the wood storage - Photo by Marius
All that is left, is to add a few more final touches – one of which is this beautiful chair we all fell in love with at the first viewing. We took it to a local upholsterer here on Caledionian road, who transformed the old school chair to new heights with beautiful leather cushions.
locally upholstered chair
And just like that Robert Blair Studios has become the companies home again and it is fair to say we are all more than delighted. Perhaps the best analogy we have found is one Philip mentioned, so I shall steal it from him now; in this space you feel as though you are in the hull of a large ship, sailing on peacefully with the world passing by. I will leave you to enjoy a final picture our dear friend Marius took (Photographer with whom we shared the building on Hassop road and owner of Fav studios ) and an open invitation to visit us here anytime!
Hassop road is a back street running parallel to Cricklewood broadway, home to many body shops.
It has been too long, three years since my last post - did I not want this space to tell the story of my violin workshop?
Riding on a wave of success with a gold medal at the VSA violin making competition and the joint top spot at the 21st century violin search at the IVCI both in 2018, orders and offers were flying in and I happily accepted not only orders but also a couple of trips as a guest teacher. Gianmaria Stelzer had been helping me making my violins half time for several years already, and since September 2018, Mathieu Fourrier joined us from Berlin on a full time employment.
Mathieu opening a two piece violin back
A particular honour was to have been invited to lead a group project together with my friend Gabor Draskozcy at the Oberlin violin making workshop in the summers of 2018 and 2019. We showed the group how we were making a copy of the 1744 “Doyen” del Gesu violin and had them make one along side us in the two weeks of 2018. In the following summer, we antiqued them both and strung them up sharing our often ridiculous techniques with the colleagues. We were greatly rewarded with an inscription on the prestigious Dutch Boy award board for “Excellence in Varnishing”.
OBERLIN - DUTCH BOY AWARD
It was during that same summer, that we had to move the workshop, because the school had plans to get some more children in and needed the space. Very near my home in Cricklewood, north west London, I found a space on the first floor of a warehouse and we set up a bright and very practical workshop!
The central island: sink, sharpening machine, cradles, table and rubbish bin easily accessible from both work stations.
We became friends with the photographers Marius and Marco from FAV studio and James, the coffee roaster from Cricklewood Coffee and with both, Mathieu and myself living close by we felt incredibly lucky with this setup during the various lock downs.
I am scraping the arching of an early golden Strad model.
Gianmaria left us to set up his own workshop in Zurich in Summer 2020. In order to have more bench time myself, I employed Victoria Farrell-Reed for two half days per week, who does the lion share of the admin and beyond that, she is hugely important to help me adjust and evaluate the quality of my violins.
Detail of my 11th Lord Wilton violin showing a beautiful transition through the materials of the finish from bear wood on the chamfer over clean golden ground to areas with thick amber coloured varnish in the tight curves of the volute.
Every now and then, we have a young maker helping out for a couple of weeks. It is mainly for preparation work and assistance in research projects. This summer Jef Leirs, from the violin making school in Antwerp came and left us not only with some good memories, but also with fine sound posts from the special Strad forrest spruce I wrote about a few posts earlier. Also, and this is remarkable, he produced a neat write up about the process of making them:
Violin: Ø 6,35 mm
Viola: Ø 7.10 mm
± 0,05mm
Making a soundpost
1. Start off with a piece of split wood of about 20 cm long. Choose the side with the flattest, most even split to plane flat and make one side square to it. Saw off square strips of ± 7,5 mm with a bandsaw. Using a small block plane, these pieces should then be planed to 6,43 mm, working on opposite sides at the same time and checking for squareness with a caliper. In this stage it shouldn’t be too hard to work to this fine tolerances.
2. Put the sound post in a jig and use a flat thumb plane to make it into an octagon. Again working on opposite sides at the same time and using a calliper to check for squareness. I found it easiest to put the jig in the direction of the bench, planing from right to left rather than planing away from your body. You should end up with an octagonal stick with eight facets equal in width and a thickness of 6,43 mm all around. 6,40 mm to 6,45 mm is tolerable but the closer the better.
3. Next step is to go from 8 facets to 16 facets. To do this, position a lamp so that you can clearly see all the different facets of the soundpost. Again with the thumb plane, take off every corner to create a new facet measuring 1/3 of the width an original facet. About four strokes per corner should be enough. If you did one corner you simply turn the soundpost to around to the next one and so on until you arrive where you began. Pay special care to still make all facets the same size. At this point the distance between opposing facets should nowhere exceed 6,45 mm. Correct if necessary, aiming for 6,43 mm.
4. Using a scraper you can now go over every newly created corner to take it off. Don’t bother with trying to make 32 perfect facets but just aim for the corners while lightly scraping away. In the meantime, keep checking in the light for sometimes you might have to do a small correction, especially on the slab side.
To finish, give it a light sand with 240 grit using the stiffness of the paper more than pushing with your fingers. Make sure it’s nice enough from the scraper so you don’t have to sand for too long, as this will result in flatter soft grain areas. Move on to 320, 400, 600 and 1000 grit. This should leave you with a nice silky finish. •
