Week 19: Front of the viola - purfling trimmed, channel carved around the edges. Back - the basic profile of the arching is now complete. Same needs to be done for the front, and then it is back to thumb planes and blisters! 🎻

Week 18: Glued the front purfling in place. Trimmed the back purfling flush with the plate. Carved a channel all around the edges. Back to hardcore carving of the back to get the arching right. Part way there 🙂 🎻

Week 17: Marked out the viola neck & scroll. Nailed(ish) the purfling. A lot of strips ended up in the bin - but I was pretty happy with the end result. Happiness is a crisp mitre 😘🎻

Week 16: A few odd jobs. Adding some spare timber to the neck block to make it square & easier to work with. Trimming the linings. Then the part I have been waiting for - learning how to fit the purfling! It’s going to be a fiddly (pardon the pun) task but it’s going to look amazing! 🎻

Happy gotcha day 💜 Many snuggles, many laughs. Just the right amount of knitwear.

Week 15: Some more knifework on the back & then got to the chiseling stage of the purfling channel. Then repeated the process for the front of the instrument. To illustrate the difference in timbers, this took 4 or 5 hours for the maple back, & nearly got the spruce front done in 40 minutes! 🎻🌲

Week 14: Second purfling groove marked & then incised. Dry soap added to help the knife run smoother. Once both lines are deep enough a tiny chisel will scoop out the channel ready for the inlay. 🎻

Week 13: Time to start cutting the channel to inlay the purfling. First gently scribed using a marking tool. Then begins the process of progressively incising a 2-mm deep channel along the line using a small pointy knife blade. Embracing the zen! 🎻

Week 12: More prepping of the edges before cutting the channel for the purfling. Back to the chisels to take out more waste and speed things up for the thumb planes. I think we’re there now!

Week 11: Continuing to thin down the edges of the back. Three hours using thumb planes was a bit hurty, even with hands covered in elastoplast for protection. The thing on the left in the second pic is a depth gauge that tells you how little effort you have put in so far, carry on, you slacker 🙃 🎻

Happy 4th birthday to this absolute poser of a dog.

Week 10: At long last it was time to break out the tiny thumb planes @iantho.bsky.social ! Thinning out the edges ready to cut the channel to inlay the purfling (the black bands that stop edge splits from propagating along the grain). Bit tough on the hands, but it grows ever-more viola-shaped! 🎻

Week 9: Tidied up the corners of the viola. Continued carving the front in earnest, using the guide templates to get the curves right. A pleasure returning to the spruce after the sheer bastardry of maple, and I began to feel like yeah, I really CAN carve shapes in wood 🪵 💪🏻

Late May and the eggplants are still going gangbusters 🍆🍆🍆

Week 8: Time to trim down the front & back of the instrument to their proper size. Coped with the coping saw. Then tidied up using bobbin sander & sanding disc (possibly my favourite tools). Still a looong way to go, but this felt like a significant step towards its viola-ness.

Week 7: I carved, carved, then carved some more. Getting fitter, stronger, & developing more of a feel for the tools and the timber. Bit more to go, then it’s time to cut the outline of the viola for real (there is still some excess here), & cut the channel to inlay the purfling near the edges. 🎻

Week 6: The front & back of the viola are taking shape. The front (nice soft spruce) was the easy part. The back (much harder maple)… let’s just say the war of attrition has begun. Three hours of carving & everything aches. I am so going to fall asleep on the sofa mid-evening.

Week 5: Front & back of the viola are rough cut & mounted on blocks for clamping. Body shape marked out. Edge thickness marked. Actual carving of the front has begun! The first 3 crisp, confident cuts are the teacher’s & the rest of the nervous wibbly-wobbly nibbles are all my own work 😅🎻

A colourful friend eating weeds in my garden. Not sure what it is - I think it might turn into a Noctuidae moth of some kind. 🐛

Week 4. The viola ribs are trimmed, & planed down so instrument depth tapers from bottom to top. Linings are cut, bent (rescued by the teacher!) & glued. Next: begin shaping the back & the front of the instrument (I gather this stage takes a while 😅).

Stranger in the dog park: “Wow, your dog is really well trained!” My dog: 👀

Week 3. Starting to look like an actual viola-shaped thing! After an inauspicious start to rib-bending last time, today I smashed it (injury-free), & got the ribs all glued. Next time ready to start shaping the front & back of the instrument. 🎻

Some typos must simply be savoured and enjoyed. A scene from early colonial South Australia - the first arrival of live cattle. (Quite apt too, since South Australia has a prominent statue commemorating lost bollocks in Rundle Mall.) (Source: Keith Conlon, Facebook)

Second violin-making session. Trimmed the inner corner blocks, trimmed & thicknessed the ribs but alas did not make friends with the bending iron 🔥😬 C-ribs glued. Planed and glued the maple pieces for the back. Next time aiming for fewer burn injuries. 🎻

First steps on the path to instrument-making. I am starting with a viola rather than a violin - so if I fuck it up at least it will be funny. 🎻

Spent a couple of hr handing out how-to-vote cards at the pre-poll for the SA state election. Various parties there - Lib, Lab, Green, Family First, One Nation, Animal Justice. Good reminder that people who give a damn - even if you don’t believe in the same things - are the backbone of democracy.

Ah heck, I’m going to have to get them desexed. 🎻

One of the most surprising things about stringed instruments is that you can take them apart with nothing more than a butter knife 🎻

I put on my big-girl pants & shaped a new bridge for my cello. The original wasn’t great quality & quickly became bent. I bought a better quality blank & fitted it. Bit rough, but it sounds better!

A little light cello restoration over the long weekend. A badly chipped student instrument on its way to looking pretty again. Before and after. 🎻