A few months ago I was asked by the team of Helen Michetschläger, Kai-Thomas Roth, William Castle and Marc Soubeyran if I wanted to support them in their viola making project at the RNCM in Manchester between 9th-13th January 2017 by making sure they were never hungry nor thirsty and to take photographs of their work.
It took minutes to reply to their request as I was very eager to be able to watch and learn from such experienced makers!
During the five days in which they completed a Bellosio viola of 1792, I learned a lot, from seeing how they use tools, and which tools, hearing their discussions on different parts of the making process and even got to ask trickier questions concerning thicknessing and archings. I feel very lucky to have been part of this project. The amount of information and inspiration I have gained from this is immense and I am really eager to get my hands on wood again to try all the different things I have learned in this days – starting today with carving my cello scroll!
