Where instruments
take shape.
When my family moved to Nøtterøy, this room was still a garage. I turned it, slowly, into the workshop where every one of my violins is now built.
An instrument is not assembled —
it is grown.
Each violin spends months on the bench, often longer. Hand tools do most of the work; machines, almost none. The atelier is small by design, so that every decision — from a quarter-millimetre of arching to a single drop of varnish — passes through the same ear and the same hand.
Six quiet stages,
from log to voice.
01The Wood
Slow-grown spruce for the top, flamed maple for the back. Split, weighed, and rested for years before it becomes an instrument.
02Carving the Plates
Arching shaped with finger planes and scrapers. Graduations tuned by ear and eye — thousandths of a millimetre at a time.
03The Voice
F-holes cut by hand following the long Cremonese geometry. Bass bar fitted, soundpost set — the smallest decisions that shape the sound.
04The Body
Ribs bent over a hot iron, plates joined with hide glue, the neck grafted in at the angle a player's hand will know without thinking.
05Varnish
Thin coats of oil varnish, ground from natural resins. Each layer dries slowly under daylight — what the eye loves, the ear also hears.
06Setup & Voicing
Bridge cut, fingerboard dressed, soundpost adjusted. The instrument is played, listened to, refined again — then ready to leave the bench.
A few moments from the day's work.
Step inside the workshop
— by appointment.
The atelier is open to players, collectors and the simply curious. Write a few lines about what brings you here and we will find a quiet hour together.