Author: redwoodviolin

  • RV Project Launch, Roughing the plates, making glue

    RV Project Launch, Roughing the plates, making glue

    On Monday we put out the first Redwood Violin Project Newsletter and reached out on social media. This represented the official launch of the project. As an experienced violinmaker, making a good violin out out of local materials has alway seemed doable to me, but that is only half of the idea of the project.…

  • Strings for the Redwood Violin

    Strings for the Redwood Violin

    The strings are the one part of the Redwood Violin that I am not planning to make myself. While it looks like a doable process it is quite involved and I simply dont have time at this point. A second reason is that modern synthetic strings sound different to traditional gut ones and if the…

  • Help Wanted – Machinist

    Help Wanted – Machinist

    Can anyone recommend a local machinist to make these metal parts?

  • Violinmaking at last! Making the Ribs

    Violinmaking at last! Making the Ribs

    I’ve finally got started on making the Redwood Violin. At last I’m going to start to find out how my substitute materials will work. Comparing woods On the ribs (sides) I get to use three of the woods that I’ve collected. The applewood planes and cuts very nicely, leaving a smooth finish off the blade.…

  • Materials Review

    Materials Review

    I’ve been collecting materials for the Redwood Violin for a couple of months and now I have the wood that I need to get started. Heres a review of what I have and what it will be used for. There are still a few finishing materials like varnishes, dyes and pigments that I need to…

  • New Theme Tune for the Redwood Violin Videos

    New Theme Tune for the Redwood Violin Videos

    I’m very excited to be able to add a theme tune to the Redwood Violin videos. High school Junior, Gwendolyn Thalia Przyjazna, composed this musical signature which I feel captures the optimistic and exploratory essence of the Redwood Violin Project. Gwendolyn is deeply in music composition and is seriously considering the possibility of music school…

  • Greg Zall and Mark Tindley, Fine woodworking and marquetry.

    Greg Zall and Mark Tindley, Fine woodworking and marquetry.

    Mark Tindley and Greg Zall do high end woodwork from furniture to cabinetry. Their biggest distinction is their spectacular marquetry work. Their shop is in a semi-rural setting on the edge of Petaluma in a couple of the lovely old barns that you can see scattered around the edges of Petaluma in various stages of…

  • Re-sawing the applewood

    Re-sawing the applewood

    I normally get the wood for my violins in billets from Europe, pre-sawn to sizes that are easily digestible by a violinmaker. For that reason I’ve never bothered to acquire the machines that most modern wood shops have. The applewood came in a nice five by two foot plank. In violinmaking school I was shown…

  • The Redwood Violin Project

    The Redwood Violin Project

    A bit late in the process, but here’s a video introduction to the project.

  • Violin Pegs

    Violin Pegs

    Materials Violin pegs are normally made of a hard wood, the most commonly used are ebony and rosewood. The favorite wood for the high end pegs that you’ll see on Stradivari violins is English boxwood, stained to a honey color with nitric acid. English box pegs look beautiful after about 70 years of use have…