Sue Hunt arrives from London

Heartsease, a viola I made for Sue Hunt, waits among the spring flowers for her arrival.

Custom Fittings

Kong's Kosmo

For many of my instruments I also create fittings that reflect the chosen theme. These pegs and tailpiece are to be used in a violin with the cosmos as its thematic soul. First I inlaid the crystals, then incised the designs. Next I carefully pressed gold leaf into the contours. As a protective coating for the delicate gold leaf, I filled in the remaining design depressions with clear epoxy varnish. This should keep the decoration intact over many years and thousands of tunings.

There is a rainbow in all our lives

Rainbows are everywhere in my life even in winter.

As I was driving home a large rainbow suddenly appeared. Then it morphed into a double-bow.

It disappeared only to reform minutes later over a perfect little peak to the north.

I thought it was gone, but when I came home the rainbow had landed on Heart's Ease, a viola.

Maybe all this is just a post script to the magical inauguration we as a whole country just experienced.

Kong's Kosmos

The komet in Kong's Kosmos brushes through the atmosphere of a planet seeding music.
A galaxy with constellations in the form of violins spins on the back of the scroll.

The Fight Against Uniformity

Purfling unlike any I have seen. And I like it. Creating this sort of visual touch can only help one to create a patch of turf different from all the other "lawns" on the block.
These external, and in my case, internal touches don't influence the sound, but they do help to annouce the instrument as an individual in tone as well.

Tap Tones for Lester Kong's Kosmos

This entry shows the most difficult part of violin making and also where the elusive soul of the instrument is created. In the photo I am holding the violin top at a node and then tapping the center of the instrument with my right hand to produce a "tap tone". The tap tone should be clear and bell-like in both top and back. I like to keep the tap tones about one whole step apart.

Merlin visits from the hereafter to try out Merlin, the viola

Actually David Wright who lives on the planet right now in Minneapolis and is a member of the Minneapolis Orchestra is pictured here playing a new viola of mine called Merlin. While David is a fine violinist/violist, there is no doubt in my mind that he is also something of a wizard. Merlin, the viola, is a 16" instrument which David latched on to in preference to the other violas I had him try out. David played on Merlin this summer when the viola was only a couple of months old. And I must say, that the instrument had a clarity of sound and quickness of response which sounded magical to my ears... or maybe it was just the Merlin in David playing tricks on me.