“This trade is an old worldly trade and its beauty lays in the time and patience it takes to create by hand…bespoke unique instruments which not only have to look but to sound beautiful and last several life times.” Ilja Grawert 2022
Fitting the soundpost in a cello or other bowed instrument is such a delicate matter and musicians often ask how I can set and fit it inside the instruments body. Here is some rare footage of the sound post setting process filmed from the inside as well…
…perfect fit to the inner surface…with the right tension…in the best position
…gives the instrument an even, beautiful & carrying sound🎻❤️
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.
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…
In this update I am checking the flexibility of the plates, measure the thickness, balance the plates and then finally it is time to apply the special ‘Ilja Grawert sound system’ which is naturally my trade secret. This will give the cello its beautiful, warm but still carrying tone like you usually only find in old instruments. Then I glue the top plate onto the sides
The lining on a bowed stringed instrument is a bent piece of wood, usually willow or spruce, which is glued to the top and bottom of the ribs to reinforce the ribs and create a larger glueing surface for the plates. Here is a short video clip of the process.
Recently I received a bow for rehair where it was said that the bow has mites. Mites are definitely a bad cause for loosing bow hair as you have to clear the case and all other cloth items including the cloth around the rosin of those little animals.
However it turned out that the cause wasn’t mites at all but either a bad knot in the tip of the bow or the bad habit of the musician of pulling a broken hair instead of cutting it with scissors (or even a combination of both)
When you pull hair out of the tip you pull it out of the knot and then makes the knot looser, soon more and more hair will fall out until there is hardly any left.
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 rain forest, fruit trees, gardens and a clear Mountain creek…
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 trial ever in rubber and is just not good enough, and No2 is done in a soft rubber and a little bit better but triggered a material change and Stamp No3 is my first trial in end grain hardwood. I am still improving the method and am already getting better results.
This morning at my workbench on the verandah of my workshop…retouching a violin restoration in the daylight. The fully loaded mandarin trees add a lovely feel to my work day.