Bows and Buttons.

Yesterday was the beginning of the real repair program - the four weeks prior to that was all in preparation. We do bow rehair 7 hours a day, three days a week for the next month. I expect we'll get pretty good at it. Lisbeth stresses the reality that if you are good at rehairing bows, you will always be able to put food on your table. Bow rehairing is... a lot of things to remember. And there are a lot of ways to mess things up. So. Mondays through Wednesdays are complete and solid rehair class. Thursdays are divided into Rehair, Repair, and Varnish Class. Fridays are still just Violin History in the morning.

One of the nice things is that the violin and guitar students have now parted ways. The violin program is much smaller (about 18 folks to the nearly 40 guitar students), and we are all finally in the same room. So, no more split sections and running around between classrooms for each different thing we have to do. It's more intimate, and the pace is quicker.

In other news, my violins that I am halfway done varnishing are starting to look like real violins, and they are looking quite lovely. What I don't like is the varnish is finicky so I tend to make the same batch to use for all three of them - and in doing so, they are all three coming out about the same color. I think next coat I put on I will head them in different directions. I'm looking forward to my varnish class, where I will learn more about the why and how instead of just the actions of doing it.

Bow Rehair class is tough - there are a few people who made it through the first four weeks but may not last too long into this section. Tomorrow we will tie knots until our hands fall off!