Beautiful Balanced Cello…update

Beautiful Balanced cello brown varnish Ilja Grawert violins in Brisbane Australia The Gap and North Queensland

After the top plate was finished, glued to the sides…the back finished and fine-tuned …the body closed… the varnishing started. The varnishing process is now nearly finished. I wanted to create a dark brown, classic old looking colour this time…with the ‘Fleur De Lis’ shining through the many layers of varnish. What do you think […]

Beautiful Balanced Cello

Another one of my current projects… a full size studio cello nearly ready to be varnished. Look how well this plate is balanced. this cello will have a beautiful song

The keys on my piano are stuck

Here is a little hobby Sunday project. The keys of our student piano are stuck. I first thought it might have been due to high humidity as this piano lives nearly outside. It ended up to be cockroach dirt stuck in between the keys. It was fairly easy to clean all that. Now the keys […]

The Apprentice on carving an 1/8 size scroll for practice

Carving a scroll so much smaller than I typically would was a really interesting experience, one that I really enjoyed, and learned a lot from. I ended up having to use a lot of the smaller gouges that I would usually have only needed for the finest work on a full-size for a lot more […]

7/8 cello update No 6

After closing the cello the cello was ready to have the neck fitted. I was so lost in the work on this cello that I totally forgot to take photos . It is very important that the neck is in the right position, in the right angle overlapping the top plate the perfect amount to […]

15.5″ Studio Viola project update No 1

A 15.5 inch studio viola. thicknessing the top-plate is finished, the bass bar wood is prepared to the right thickness. I chose a high quality, well seasoned, split peace of spruce. After checking all the proportions, lots of measuring & calculating I could mark the final length and exact positioning for the bass bar to ensure most vibration of the top

7/8 cello update No 5

7/8 studio cello at Ilja Grawert violin shop workshop Brisbane Australia

Each cello carries a song of its own, telling a story of its proportions, the tools and the hands shaping it from a block of wood into this beautiful creation of sound.

The apprentice’s studio violin

“This was the first instrument I fully tonally adjusted, and it is the one that I am now personally playing, at least until I make something that I like more.“ – Reuben Grawert “I had a lot of fun adjusting, setting up, and varnishing this instrument, and even if I made a couple of mistakes […]

7/8 Cello Winter22 Update No4

I finished fitting the bass bar and glued it to the inner surface of the top plate in its proper position. Gluing is usually a high stress situation as the glues we use are one hundred percent natural hide glue. It needs to be heated and after application the clamps will have to be put […]