Viola Stradivariana modello Hellier 1998

Antonio Stradivari made a strings quartet completely inlayed. So I decided to pay homage to Antonio Stradivari proposing again one of the four inlayed instruments, the viola. The ribs of the viola show the same patterns of the Hellier Stradivari violin. The construction of the instrument took one year. The first problem for me was to find an alternative material (ivory is not allowed to be used) which could replace the ivory used by Stradivari to inlay the back and the belly. At the end I decided to use the plastic casein because it is a ductile material and it is for aspect and colour very similar to the ivory. The second problem regarded the ribs, because the violin’s ribs inlays could not be the same per the viola. So I have scanned the inlays of the violin and after I have modified the proportion to fit the viola measures; in this way I obtained the ribs design of the viola and then I have printed them on paper. The stucco of the purfling of the beck and belly were made with powder of ebony mixed with rabbit’s paste. First, as for the viola’s scroll, I made the purflings , then I made the scroll’s inlays and, at the end I did the same work for the inlays and the ribs. I took care of a lot of the details which were carefully made in order to have a fine instrument rich of style and elegance like the original. Now this instrument is at the museum of the international school of Liuthery of Cremona, the Stauffer foundation have bought it.

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