Do you have an unfinished project you want to complete? Something that seems absolutely beyond you? Maybe you lack the tools or the space for the job. Are you afraid you can’t do the job perfectly? Have you lost your enthusiasm for the project? Does the enormity of the next step steal your courage?

I have a story that will encourage you.  The project began 30 years ago. It was completed this week.

It’s the story of Tom’s violins.

When our boys were toddlers/pre-schoolers we lived in an old farmhouse in western New York. We worked from home, but had a few children’s shows on PBS that we watched as a family. One such show was Reading Rainbow.

Levar Burton, the show’s host, shared delightful children’s books each day. He often included informative segments capable of stirring adult minds. 

One morning we found ourselves sitting on the couch watching and episode called “Barn Dance.” Next thing we knew, we were in the workshop of Gene Horner of Tennessee, a fiddle maker who could “take an ordinary hunk of wood and turn it into the sweetest sounding fiddle music this side of the Mississippi,” as Levar put it.

Gene Horner, Fiddle Maker as seen on Reading Rainbow

For the next five minutes we saw Mr Horner create a violin from a hunk of wood in his workshop. And just like that, Tom started dreaming about building a violin himself.

The fact that it would take him 30 years never crossed his mind.

Tom’s first step was to research. This project would be nothing like his former woodworking projects. He needed to find appropriate books and videos to study. The internet is now flooded with crafters of all kinds sharing their projects. But when Tom needed help there was barely even an internet. The public library and some mail order manuals gave him the knowledge he needed.

He now has a small but adequate library in a cardboard box.

Tom’s Violin Making Library

Roadblock

We moved back the the Pacific Northwest in 1995. The idyllic country life we had anticipated was exchanged for Tom getting a full-time job with a long commute. None of the three homes we’ve lived in since returning has had a proper shop. And he had very few tools specific to the delicate process of making a violin. 

But he is resourceful and creative. Tom makes good use of what he has. He thinks things through before he begins. Without any formal training he began work. The magnitude of the job started to dim his enthusiasm. The demanding steps that loomed before him had him thinking he might quit.

Help is on the way

In 2003 our little town’s music store had a Going-Out-of-Business Sale. On a high shelf was a violin making kit. The most daunting tasks had been done before the pieces went into the box.

We quickly bought it and brought it home. Now he had a “practice violin” to work on. It would help boost his courage and confidence.

In 2006 Tom finished the kit violin. It is beautiful. It taught him a lot of what he would need to finish his made-by-hand violin.

Tom’s first completed violin, built from a kit

Tom’s parents visited from New York not long after. His mom, who had played the violin in her youth, was ecstatic to get to play it.

Another day we had a group of folks over for lunch. Among the guests was our friend Brian, a professional violinist. After lunch we gathered in the living room. Tom passed the violin around so whoever wanted to play it could give it a try.

Brian’s playing enthralled us. He was impressed by the instrument’s beautiful tone. Before he left he offered to play it in church, and Tom readily agreed.

Tom’s mom playing her son’s creation

Brian H with Tom’s first violin

It was an honor for Tom to have Brian play his violin in our worship service.

Now it was time to go back to the original instrument. As you will see in the photos below, there are many steps in making a violin. And one little slip of a gouge or a knife could destroy not just the look of the instrument but also the sound. I thought he was just nervous and needed a little courage.

So I bought a little bag of empty gelatin pills, filled them with sugar, and put them in an empty pill bottle. I replaced the original label for one that said Courage Pills and put it in his Christmas stocking. It gave him a good laugh, if not the courage he needed!

Life happened and the violin sat for several more years, waiting to be finished.

In February of 2022 he began carving the top and bottom pieces of the body of the violin. That was the part of the process that had intimidated him the most. 

Tom told me about the name plate he wanted to put into the violin. In a few words he would tell the story of this violin.

The nameplate tells the story

He put the strings on a week or two ago, but they needed to be left alone for several days to stretch out. Finally the day came to tune it, play it, and rejoice that it is finished.

Often when people learned that Tom was building a violin they’d say, “Do you play?” “No,” he’d reply, “but Ginger does.” Well, I played through school but I’ve hardly touched a violin since I was 19. Still, he was pleased with the tone. And I felt a sweet abandon to be playing, however hesitantly, the violin my husband had made from scratch. My squeaky scales were music to my soul.

Ginger playing Tom’s second violin

• • • • •

Enjoy a few photos of Tom making his violin.

Gouging to shape the violin

Next step, scraping

Tom spent hours working to perfect the contours of the top and bottom plates of his violin

The violin from the inside before the pieces were glued together

The top plate of the violin before the fingerboard was permanently attached

The violin form, sides, and neck and some of the the tools used to make the instrument

It took lots of clothespins to clamp the sides to the shape of the violin

Every detail matters–the shaping of the sides (called the rib), the purfling (the decorative groove that goes around the top plate of the violin), the keyboard, the f-holes…

Shaving the fingerboard to the exact size

One of the early coats of stain on the violin

Where would you hang a violin as the stain dries? Wherever you can stick a dowel.

The made-from-scratch violin, finished at last!

Peeking at the nameplate through the f-hole.

Can you remember where you stored your project you started so long ago? Might it be time to get it out and put it somewhere more accessible, maybe even get back to work on it? Let me know if you need me to make some Courage Pills for you!

Joy and peace,

Ginger