Violin Forum/Message Board

[rs]

Here is a set of viola pegs I made for a client on my last viola. They are of boxwood and were carved and scraped to depict a wreath of leaves surrounding a set of scrolls and crowned by a flower bud. The motif is taken from Vuillaume's accessories he made for Le Messie and for The Lady Blunt although mine is a different style, naturally.

[img]
000_0005_00 by violinsbypaco, on Flickr[/img]
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Randall Shenefelt

[Chet Bishop]

Wow!

I would love to be able to do something like that!

If I were wearing a hat, it would be off...as it is, please accept my profound admiration for such a difficult task, so well done.

They look like old ivory...exquisite!

Chet Bishop
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Chet Bishop
https://bluefiddles.com
https://fivestringfiddles.com

[Mat Roop]

rs... That is magnificent work! I would have no idea how to even begin to create such a work of art.
Have you considered videoing your process?... it would be enormously interesting and useful.
Congratulations!... Mat

[Lemuel]

rs!

My eyes felt like they were popping out. How on earth did you ever acquire such a talent? Really awesome detail and art work.
It reminds me of carved pegs from Bois d'Harmonie, and as Chet said, looks like antique ivory.

[rs]

Thank you very much for your kind words and encouragement.

I made these for a viola I made for a client. This was the first set of pegs I have ever made and she liked them so much, I will be making more, I am sure. It is funny about the ivory comments because that is what she said as well.

Each peg took over a day to make. The first one nearly two days. The last one, about 9 hours. I imagine I can cut the time, eventually, in half but I am not so sure how except through repetition.

Here is how I made them: I looked at several photographs of the Vuillaume pegs I described earlier and began sketching them until I got the subtle style I wanted to convey. Once I got the drawing of how I wanted my pegs to look, I made four photocopies. I then took a piece of boxwood and cut four pieces wide enough for the thumbpiece width of about 25 mm, and thick enough for the collar, about 10 mm. I then glued my photocopies, one each, to the pieces of boxwood.

I cut the outline out following my lines until I now had four silhouettes of the finished product. I then thinned the thumbpieces on each side on a sander being careful not to score the collar area. Once I did this, I rounded the peg shaft with a file and shaped it in the peg shaver. Once the collar was established, I used this as the cornerstone to measure my distances of my thumbpieces. I then carved the scoop above the collar and then the shaped the little scrolls on the "gingerbread" lines at the base of the thumbpiece. I took a knife and scored the pattern of the aforementioned lines and then took a gouge and removed the wood north of this line to the thickness I wanted on the end product.

I then cut my scrolls and lower leaves and kept working north until I reached the flower buds. I removed the wood at the flat part, or center, of the thumbpiece with a small scraper. I cut the buds last.

To finish them, I used olive oil and pumice as this gave the rounded look to the leaf edges I was looking for. (This experimentation is one reason the first peg took so long). Once I did this, I burnished them with a flat piece of maple burl I also use on scroll bevels, edges and bridges. To finish them off, I used tripoli and olive oil. The tripoli gave the wood a green antique cast. I took a toothbrush and olive oil to remove all the compound but the tripoli down in the crevices. I then French polished them.

It was a lot of work.

[img]
000b0021 by violinsbypaco, on Flickr[/img][/i]
_________________
Randall Shenefelt

[rs]

Here is another photograph during set-up. My bench is a bit messy, but it happens this way alot.

[img]
000_0022 by violinsbypaco, on Flickr[/img]
_________________
Randall Shenefelt

[Jack Rushing]

Beautiful set of pegs Mr. Shenefelt.!!!
Now, You will have to make a tail piece,
end pin, and chin rest to match. You have
already done the hardest part of the set.