Some days I take a break and this is one of them. The demands of fussing about arching have tired me mentally, so I am preparing wood which for a few new cellos and doing a some center joints. A few months ago I poked around the attic over my studio, where my wood is frozen every winter and baked every summer, and brought a few sets of wood down into the heated area to let it sit. Today I am deciding how the raw wood will be prepared for making into an instrument. I will fuss a good bit with each piece, trying to align the grain, flame, and split for best tone and visual beauty. I started thinking about the layout last night and changed my mind several times before making my final choices this morning.
I love this job- it is like the first day of school, full of excitement and promise, with pleasant memories chiming in. Memories of a 1997 purchasing trip; jet-lagged and driving a rented car to Bavaria while big BMWs passed me at 100+ MPH on the Autobahn. Clambering over huge piles of wood to sift and select what I wanted…anxiety of its safe arrival, stacking and storing it. All these years later finding these old friends and dreaming about what a beautiful instrument it will make. Beats working.
The decisive physicality of this work- a joint is either right or it is not- will be a nice counterpoint to my recent occupations. What Hazlitt called the “inefficacy and slow progress of intellectual compared to mechanical excellence.” Time for some mechanical excellence.
