I watched the neighborhood kids walking to school carrying backpacks nearly as big as the kids themselves, and realized that the summer is gone, at least on the calendar. In the last few days before Labor Day sounded the death knell of the season, Beth and I acquired a little haven on Lopez Island and I'm looking forward to building a little shop and a little cabin and eventually living the Island lifestyle.

The economy continues to be unfriendly to this shop but hope springs eternal and we look forward to finding homes for a few instruments this year.

Work on cellos continue. The picture below is of a bassbar glue up on a Bulgarian cello that turned out, when it was opened up, to be more of a kit that had been tacked together with glue than a finished instrument. All the linings have/had to be removed, reformed or replace and re-glued. It would have been quicker to build one from scratch.

Note the caul/pads added to the Alberti clamps to spread the load and adapt to the curve of the plate.

Two new instruments to look at in the gallery section; a Sanctus Seraphin and a Andreae Guarnari viola, 15-3/4" long.

A lot of the tools that I use are built here in the shop to meet some specific need. This is one of the more amusing ones. It actually works, although it could benefit from a more powerful laser so I wouldn't have to use it in nearly total darkness.

Any guesses?

The silver tags that accompany each instrument continue to evolve. Here is the latest one.

After being prodded and cajoled for a number of years, I've given in. From this week on I will be working on cellos as well as violins and violas. It seems like a small thing but everything is different with cellos and there's a whole bunch of new tools I will get to play with. It's a little like learning to drive again; excitement mixed with a little terror.

Portland was a wonderful weekend. Tons of people playing tons of tunes, a visit to David Kerr's violin shop in the rain (wonderful people there) and an over-the-top dinner on Saturday night/Sunday morning at the Gilt Club that changed my understanding of cuisine.

Ela (a Strad model) found a new home in Berkeley in the same house that Rosalie (a D'Egville model) lives in.

Heading down to  the Old Time Gathering in Portland this weekend to play some music and visit violin shops. Traveling with at least four and maybe five violins so if you're in Portland and want to play one, look for the fiddler with too many cases. If you go to the gallery of available instruments you can see the one's I'll be carrying: Novinha, Quara, and Ela, as well as the two I usually play.

Here's the scroll I've been working on, a slightly scaled up version of an Andrea Guarneri  violin scroll to go on a viola.