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. Community involvement is the other half and that’s outside of my experience. Having assembled the website and enough reporting material to be able to convey the idea of the project, It was time to go public and reach out to the community.
The response was very positive with interest and support expressed by friends and strangers. We got:
- Inquiries into how to help
- Our first requests to use the finished Redwood Violin in local concerts
- Interest from the local press who want to cover the story
- Much needed donations to defray the running costs of the project
- Sign ups fo the newsletter.
All of this is extremely encouraging and validating. The Redwood Violin Project suddenly feels like a real thing.
Visit From the Press
John Burgess from the Press Democrat visited the shop. He has an interest in woodworking and wants to document the process.
If you see a marked improvement in the quality of some of the video camera work its because he generously shot some scenes for me on his iphone
In the workshop
I’ve started work on the back and top of the violin. The plates are roughly arched and the outline of the violin has been fixed. In addition, I’ve started on a second batch of tendon glue. There’s an account of this in the video below
I’ve also been thinking about strings and string making. and the need for some tailgut.