Violins

I decided to go down to San Domenico at the end of Cathedral road and see about perhaps trying to get hold of some violins to etch into, as I walked in I realised this was a shop of high standard violins, and that it seemed very unlikely that I could even suggest such a thing to Howard who works there, I felt it was perhaps an act of de-facing, that to etch into such beautiful objects was perhaps wrong.
I got talking to Howard about how violins were made, the work that goes into making them, and which are the most valuable, particularly those made in Italy, he explained that he goes to auctions, he showed me his workshop and how he does reconstruction/restoration work on violins, he had many boxes of cheaper violins which he used parts from, and that he could do up to make fairly decent violins for young children starting out. When I explained to him this idea I had for using the violins as objects to prints from he said he could go to an auction for me and get me a 'lot' of violins, up to around 30. So I continued to go back and see him and gain further knowledge on how they are made, and got to look around his studio. I took a number of photographs of his studio space, it is interesting to see the parallel between his studio space and my own, the tools for restoration and those for engraving, there are many parallels. He explained to me that these 'lots' that you can buy at auction are old school violins, they are council property, violins that have been disregarded chucked away, left behind by the children that took them up. This interested me, and made me think about the amount of people that you speak to that say 'I used to play an instrument but gave it up when I got older.'.......

www.san-domenico.co.uk/about.htm