First day of Ebony Class

Our schedule for the next 8 weeks is very similar to the last four, except that Ebony replaces Bow Rehair. We add an hour of Varnish on Wednesdays, we keep Varnish in the morning on Thursdays and Bow Repair on Thursday afternoons. Friday is still Violin History. 

Today, we fit pegs to a fake pegbox. Hooray!

First blood.

I cut my finger today.

Due to the varied age of my readers, I'll spare y'all a gory picture, but just take my word for how gory it is. (It's pretty gory.)

Here's the story. I had just resharpened it this morning. I mean, really sharp. Like, I could throw it at a tip wedge and it would cut itself perfectly, sharp. So, I was throwing it at various pieces of wood, making all sorts of incredible wedges, and then it occurred to me that my hand was getting a little worn from where it rubs up against the knife, with all my amazing chopping action. Easy fix, I thought. I'll just put a couple pieces of masking tape there to pad it a little. I turned my knife over to do that, when all of the sudden it jumped from my hand, yelled "I'll get you, sucker, and your little dog too!" and chomped off a pretty large slice from the side of my finger. I gasped, and fortunately had a paper towel sitting right in front of me. Then made my first visit to the huge First Aid box at the back of the room.

Actually, in reality, it happened so fast that I'm still not really sure the logistics of it. Somehow it flipped around and got a slice off the inside of my pointer finger. And tying good knots is awfully hard without an index finger. Anyhow, I'm thankful to have all my requirements done for bow rehair class, and now a long weekend fall break, which I will spend roadtripping to a faraway place to see people I have not seen in a very long time. :)

Monday we start ebony!

the bow gods smile, and so does ms. butler

I got two "attagirls" today. :)

The bow gods are smiling on me once again

I had a really discouraging day yesterday. I felt like I didn't get anything done and may as well have stayed in bed and not gone to school, which is what I was tempted to do anyway.
Come to find out today that it was the bow that was the problem, after redoing it for a THIRD time and not being able to figure out why it wasn't working as well as it had been before, when I know that I'm not doing anything horribly wrong. (better each time I redid it, so at least I got the extra practice. But I was fixing the wrong problems)

Anyway, today was much better, I finished the problem bow, and completed two more. I'm almost finished with the required bows for this class, which is good. We have to do 10 rehairs. The first bow we rehair three times. Then among the next few, there is a french bass bow, a german bass bow, a Glasser bow, and a few other violin bows, and then whatever we get the lowest score on she makes us do another of that. I have completed 8 so far, and the class goes on for another week. (Until next wednesday)
Unfortunately, to get an A in the class, you have to get several "attagirl" (or attaboy if youre a boy) bows in a row, which no one has done. She grades them out of 60 points, on every aspect of it, and an "attagirl" would be 58/60. (Closest I have gotten is a 56 - yay me!) But, the majority of the class is hanging out in the 40s. But there's hope for me yet - after the 10 are completed, we just practice on violin bows until the end of the mini-mester (wednesday). So, plenty of time to earn an attagirl grade.

Rehairing bows is like working with small children. They each have their own quirks, and some of them are easy and loveable; some of them are monsters and you want to kill them, and you are relieved to give them back when you are done with them. Endlessly frustrating when its wrong, and endlessly satisfying when its right.

whalebone wrappings and leather grips

Mine :)
This is a bow that belongs to a school somewhere else in this state, that had a tag on it saying "needs new grip." It had no grip, so it was perfect for this assignment. I chose it out of a large, sad box of many dusty and broken bows. I made it pretty, and then once I was finished, I was told to mark on the tag "grip completed." I put a smiley face next to completed, because I felt happy about it. Also I was the first one done, which always makes me feel good about myself.

Optimism

“Between the optimist and the pessimist, the difference is droll. The optimist sees the doughnut; the pessimist the hole!”  -Oscar Wilde

More bow commentary.

Learning to rehair a bow results in a smattering of emotions that range between satisfying and endlessly discouraging. 

I finished my second one today. My grade improved, though not as much as I would've liked - I fixed the things I did wrong on the first one, and didn't do as well as some things that I did successfully on the first one. Meh.

Stay tuned for three and four tomorrow.