Welcome to the virtual incarnation of my workshop where you can find out about the different aspects of my work - without disturbing me. My website http://www.basscare.se/ is being kept as simple as possible. Here is where you'll find the stuff I chat to my customers about, or stuff that I would chat to my customers about if there was more time and I was more chatty. Feel free to browse around and if you'd like to get updates in your facebook newsfeed click on 'like' at my facebook page: Elinore Morris - instrument maker www.facebook.com/Basscare. The colours of this blog attempt to match the colours of the inside of the workshop, which has been renovated with historically accurate linseed oil based paint, and you can see a snippet of the newly sanded wooden floor.

Friday 4 March 2011

Kiddie violins, the German "free-method" vs. Cremonese inner form

For once I don't have seven or eight basses in the workshop so I'm taking advantage of the lull to brush up my violin-making skills. Axel will soon need a 1/4 size violin, so that's what I'm busy with. The last violin I made took 5 years, but this one is going a lot quicker.

I'm using the German method of fixing the ribs, that we were taught at school - did my exam in Markneukirchen - as opposed to the conventional Cremonese method using an inner form, not because it's better but because I didn't want to spend time making a form for a one-off instrument. In this method the form of the back is finished and then the ribs are bent to fit. The corner blocks are fitted last. It's quite a lot harder to get the same even result as when form is used, but it useful when experimenting with different shaped/sized instruments.

Here is an inner form that I've made for a double bass. It is after a John Lott bass that belongs to the Gothenburg Symphony, which I've had the privilege of having in the workshop.

I've got this far today. Axel told me that he would like a black violin with a heart shaped scroll. Why not? I'd already rough cut the scroll, but was inspired by a heart shaped "cheerio" that we found in Axel's breakfast cereal on Valentine's day to make a hole that you can peep through. It's still just roughly formed now. I'll do a close-up when it's finished.