The cello is nearly finished now. I just prepared and glued the fingerboard, saddle and nut. Next will be the tuning pegs, the endpin, tailpiece, the bridge and soundpost…basically the whole Ilja Grawert deluxe set up
I cannot wait to finish setting up the cello and hear it’s beauty 🎻❤️
The beautiful cello is getting closer and closer to be finished. Some protective varnish and some French polishing finishes the varnish process. Now it has to dry for a few weeks and then I can set it up and play…wonderful music with a wonderful cello before it goes to the customer who I made it for…🎻
Varnishing a cello needs sun…I woke up in the morning and saw there was sun, finally after nearly 5 month of rain.
Straight in the workshop I started the varnish layer process. There are many more layers of colouration and glasing. This beautiful cello will be of dark antique colour.
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Finally it stopped raining a bit so I could start the varnishing process of the beautiful cello. The ground varnish coat has the purpose to seal the pores of the timbers, making it more stable and resistant to humidity changes. As well as preventing pigments from the colour varnish coats to soak into the wood.
The golden ‘Fleur De Liz’ painting starts above the ground coat and will be repeated on each subsequent layer of pigment to then at the end adding shading and colour texture. I need very fine brushes and a steady hand to paint such fine detail.
The reflection in the moving light on the flamed maple wood is just fantastic…
After the bass bar has been fitted and glue it now needs to be shaped that it can fulfil its purpose or spreading the deep sounds as fast as possible over the whole top plate and act as a support for the high pressure from the bridge onto the top plate. Then it is time to roughly adjust the thickness on the inside of the back plate.
For the last seven days I have been working firstly correcting the outside arching of the 7/8 size studio cello changing all around the f-holes and in the middle of the top. Then I was removing lots of material from the inside of the top plate with the little thumb planes preparing the plate for the fine tuning so the cello will sound beautiful. Go down to video
Next will the fine-tuning of the top plate start and the bass bar. There will be another update for that.
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 the sound volume. The first one is an eastern European viola roughly 70-90 years old. With its beautiful flamed back and stunning craftsmanship it will be a beauty to own. The second one is a German Strad copy from around 1920 Saxony & the last one is one of my studio violas with painted ‘fleur de lis’ . All three are well priced and worth trying if you are looking for a viola to play. Call/Sms me @0437 88 2468 for an appointment or more information
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 of this colour?
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.
This is the third update fitting of my 7/8 cello project winter22. Here is a short description about using chalk for fitting the bass bar. This stage is always exciting as that marks the finishing of the top plate. Fitting with chalk takes around 6-8 hours and has to be very fine with super sharp tools. On this update we are still in the rough phase of fitting.
Are you interested in pre-order buying this cello you have a chance to take some influence on the making to make it a truly personelised cello. Follow the link below:
I made this violin years ago and never offered it for sale before. This violin has been fully handmade by me following all the old traditions of violin making. It has a beautiful warm tone and is very pleasing to play. A good friend for the violinist. The varnish is an old traditional recipe with only natural colours.
Please contact me for the price
Please contact me for the price of this beautiful violin
click on the image below for shop view
