Category Archives: News

Left hand studio violin ready to varnish

I have been building a left hand violin for an order and it is finally ready to be varnished. Hand made left hand studio violin built in the workshop of Ilja Grawert & son master violin maker and luthier in Brisbane Australia The Gap and North Queensland near Whitsundays in our beautiful workshop surrounded by […]

Stamp making

hand made stamp Ilja Grawert & son master violin maker and luthier in Brisbane Australia The Gap and North Queensland

Currently as a little side hobby I learning to stamps on wood. So far I am getting closer to acceptable quality with every new attempt. When I am happy there will be new, traditional stamped labels in my violins. beautiful look and no printing involved…very traditional old craft, old time. Stamp No1 was the first […]

The Stad Magazine finally arrived

You cannot imagine my joy when I walked into the local post office today, where I am well known and was greeted by: “Guess what is in your Po Box…” After month and month of waiting for the October issue of The Strad magazine, I think maybe 15 emails to the publisher, as well as […]

My Brisbane/The Gap workshop

Beautiful violin bridge I recently cut…I’ll be in my Brisbane Workshop from February 11th for a brief period.Would like to make an appointment for a repair, service or a beautiful new instrument. Best contact me on 0437 88 2468Enjoy the music#onlyattheviolinmaker #violin #viola #cello #doublebass #brisbane #brisbanemusic #brisbaneclassic #queensland #queenslandmusic #violinmaker #violinmakersworkshop

Three 15 1/2″ violas

German viola around 1920 at Ilja Grawert violin shop workshop Brisbane Australia

As I am very busy here in my North Queensland workshop building and restoring instruments I do not find the time to put these wonderful three violas in my webshop. They are between $5,000-$10,000 with all three beautiful and even sound, 15 1/2 inch body length so easy to play with still no compromise in […]

Full size studio cello sounds perfect now

full size studio cello at Ilja Grawert violin maker in Brisbane australia

After the full size studio cello was varnished and set-up it still needed some fine adjustments, a lot of playing and figuring out which are the best strings to support its beautiful sound. Now after two extra month of fine tuning the cello it is a very vibrant, ringing but warm and deep sounding cello. […]

Two cellos

two studio cellos at Ilja Grawert violin shop workshop Brisbane Australia

To get a little inside of what I have been working on in my North Queensland workshop in the last few month, visit my current projects page and see some of the steps in the building of two of my studio cellos, 7/8 & 4/4 size and a 15 ½” viola. They will be finished […]

7/8 cello update No7

Now the cello is varnished in a dark brown colour. Again I decided to paint some ‘Fleur De Lis’ again like on the 4/4 studio cello the painting is higher up in the varnish so they stay highly visible and not hidden behind layers and layers of dark varnish …as well as preparing the fingerboard […]