Helen's Blog

I’ve hit a huge milestone, my 300th instrument! This was an occasion to count up exactly what I’ve made. These are the numbers: 85 full-size violins 15 small-size violins 114 violas (15 inch and over) 35 small-size violas (my own models, 15 inch and under) 51 cellos I count myself fortunate to have had a long career doing what I love, and also to have met so many wonderful players who have supported me by buying my work. … [Read more...]

I’m sometimes asked about how you train to be a violin maker. These days the old apprenticeship system has all but died out, and instead the training is done in a college setting. The students are typically a hugely mixed bunch of all ages and nationalities. People come from very diverse backgrounds; some are skilled musicians, some can’t play a note. Some already have well developed tool skills and some prior experience of instrument making; for those that don’t, the courses will start them … [Read more...]

Forty years ago, as a somewhat timid 18 year old, I started my training at the Newark School of Violin Making. We were the first intake in the new building, the old Westminster Bank building on Kirkgate, Newark. In those days the school was much smaller than it is now - an intake of twelve students in two out of three years, so the year I arrived there was a first year and a second year of 12 and a third year of just two. It was competitive to get a place; I believe that over 100 applied so I … [Read more...]

Last weekend I was in Oxford for a conference of the British Violin Making Association. The title of the conference was Messiah 301, focussing on one of the most famous and notorious Stradivari violins, nicknamed the Messiah, which is in the collection of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. The violin was made 301 years ago. By a strange coincidence, I'm currently varnishing my instrument no. 301, and this month marks 40 years since I started my training at the Newark School of Violin Making, where … [Read more...]

I’m just back from a holiday in Japan where they take preparations for winter seriously. I’d been particularly keen to see some of the gardens, and was intrigued to find that the gardeners spend a huge amount of time and effort tying tall posts into the pine trees, from which they suspend ropes to support the longer lower branches against the weight of heavy snow, which could break them. For our instruments we don’t have to go to these lengths, but some thought is nevertheless worthwhile. The … [Read more...]

  Every year the British Violin Making Association (BVMA) hosts the Makers' Day, a one-day fair of violin makers and traders. On 4 February we all converged on Kings Place, the fine new(ish) concert hall and arts venue which is one of the keystones of the redevelopment of the Kings Cross area in London. This is the second year we've been there and it's a great venue; light, spacious and airy, with a good café and big practice rooms for players to try out our instruments. There … [Read more...]

One of my colleagues gave me this wreck of a violin blanket recently. It was in a nineteenth century violin case. It's hand embroidered, probably on a silk/cotton fabric. The warp threads are intact but the weft threads, probably the silk, have almost totally disintegrated, held together only by the embroidery. This blanket is a reminder of the time long before television when evenings were long and nobody liked to be idle, so needlework was a good way of filling the time. I guess I grew … [Read more...]

Every year I offer a work experience placement to a violin making student through the scheme run by the RAB Trust. During one of the coldest and snowiest weeks of the year, Marion Pollart came to the workshop. She is from Belgium, fully trained as a conference interpreter, but having chosen a big career change, she's now in her second year at the Newark School of Violin Making. We had discussed in advance the work she would undertake, and decided that she would focus on making a scroll for … [Read more...]

I had wanted to test some different strings on my smaller violas. The string company D’Addario makes several types of string for small violas, and they generously sent me some sample sets to try. The viola player Lucy Nolan kindly agreed to play the violas with the different strings. Lucy teaches at the RNCM in both junior and senior departments alongside her busy professional performance career, so was well placed to assess the different qualities of the strings. The violas We tried the … [Read more...]

On Tuesday 29 May I went to a concert at the newly refurbished Purcell Room, the smallest venue at London's Southbank Centre. The concert marked the life of a patron of contemporary music, Leo Hepner, who himself played the viola. As well as the Arditti Quartet there was music for solo viola; the world premiere of Milica Djordjevic's Pomen II, played on one of my violas by Paul Beckett. Paul has had my viola since he was a student at Chetham's School of Music in Manchester. Having completed his … [Read more...]