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.

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”.

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.

Hassop road - North West London