Thursday, March 22, 2012

Success of a New Day

The best compliment I have received in my violin making career occured today, and it's even better because it was from Brian! So....I have been working on my first scroll and taking tons of notes! I have measurements for everything on a scroll you could imagine. And today I got to try out my new, custom scroll gouges, which Brian keeps saying are nice tools. Today, I primarily worked on the first turn of the scroll. Now how Brian goes about showing us is he basically demonstrates what he wants us to do on one side, in this instance one side of the scroll, and we copy what he did on the other. Well, today after I has finished another step in the process and brought it to Brian to look at, he looked at the scroll, touched it up a little, and said, "Are you sure you haven't done this before?" I just laughed. And he said, "I'm serious." I looked up at him and kept laughing. And he said, "This is not bad."
"Oh so you expect it to be bad."
"No, but it's your first one."
After that I just smiled. Earlier while I was working on the scroll he asked me if I felt like I knew what I was doing, or if I felt lost. I said I kinda felt like I knew what I was doing. I'm not sure to chalk it up to me enjoying scrolls, for the most part, or Brian's teaching skills.

That was my highlight of the day.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Nashville visit

So my last blog was right around Thanksgiving....it's been awhile and as a result much has happened since. I have completed the bodies of fiddle two and three, the Amati and Strad models. And I have just started working on my first scroll. I was able to get some really nice custom built gouges that I am looking forward to use.
I also just got back from spring break in Nashville and boy was it great! Nashville Violins has been pursuing me to work in their shop, so when I went to Nashville this week I got to meet the owner and check out the shop. It 's a nice place. I'm thinking the profession I'm in allows me to get to know some good, down to earth people quite easily. So I had a good time in Nashville, checked out the city some, got to see some sights like the Art museum and the outside of the Grand Ole Opry and walked down Broadway to take in some music. My impression of Nashville so far is....well, people have a certain perception or expectation of it and it often is very different than you might have thought, especially after living there. But this is just a theory. Honestly, it's just another city. The difference is it has a big name.
It would be great if I could finish my three scrolls before school is done for the semester, but I don't know how realistic that is really. We will see. Anyway, I've been having a great time. Until next time.