A year in progress

     Well for anybody who is wondering I am not exactly getting the "college" experience. There are six people at the school, and I am living with two of them and really there is not much to do around here. I guess that's good so I can concentrate on making violins! I am working two jobs at a couple different restaurants now. One will end at the end of October and the other is just for weekends. I also know I could make a lot of money staying here over the summer, but would rather come back visit friends and family and take some college courses. I don't know, we will see. Ok so I have some catching up to do as far as school, for all you curious people out there.... Well on Tuesday Brian talked about hide glue which is made out of animal skins and is hydroscopic. He keeps his glue in a sauce pan that he drilled holes in to fit baby food containers which hold the glue. Nifty idea if you ask me. He also gave us some instruction on how to make the glue. You can buy the powder in different strengths. So after all my blocks were cut I glued them onto the form I am using. We are told to then wait 8-10 hours before working on them. While those were drying I began the awesome (some sarcasm) process of planing my maple and spruce. Talk about labor, pain, frustration. I have the blisters to prove it! It took me all day Thursday to plane the maple and tomorrow I will finish planing the spruce. That block plane and I haven't been the best of friends...we used what Brian referred to as chopsticks to lay the form on to glue the blocks. The dimensions of these depend on the form and the ones we use are 9mm by 11mm, the 11 side being used for violas. Ta ta for now!