I first found my way into luthiery through repairs, and later the restoration of old trade instruments that no one else wanted to touch. At one stage my teacher handed me what could only be described as a box of problems — violins in various states of disrepair — and encouraged me to work through the techniques of repair one challenge at a time…it took a while.
Beyond cracks and cleats, however, I soon ran headlong into the wall of perfectionism that true restoration demands. Colour matching, timber replacement, retouching and finishing all revealed just how deep the craft really goes. Progress came steadily, but only to a point. It was at this stage that I found myself reluctantly declining work on higher-end instruments, simply because I knew my skills had not yet reached the standard those instruments deserved.
What surprised me was discovering a genuine gap in the market. Some of those potential clients returned a year later, still unable to find someone with both the skills and availability to undertake the work. It became clear that advanced restoration is a highly specialised field, and one that is increasingly difficult to access.
The Lord Mayor’s Creative Fellowship has given me a tremendous opportunity to develop these skills further, particularly through the study of restoration techniques and traditional varnishing methods.
I had followed the work of Iris Carr for several years. Iris is an internationally recognised violin restorer and an established teacher of restoration — two skill sets that do not always go hand in hand. After studying violin making at the Newark School of Violin Making in the UK, she went on to work at the highly regarded Beare’s violis in London, where she developed highly specialised restoration skills over many years. Today she teaches these techniques professionally, and her courses came highly recommended to me by a colleague in the UK.
Drinking deeply from her well of knowledge and professional experience, Iris course leads students through carefully selected worked examples designed to demonstrate specific restoration challenges and techniques. Each process is explored step by step, including the inevitable backwards steps that are often part of real restoration work. In true academic fashion, she teaches not only her own methods, but also discusses materials and approaches used by other respected restorers, acknowledging their expertise along the way.
That willingness to acknowledge the work of others is, in my view, one of the rare hallmarks of genuine mastery — someone confident enough in their own expertise to openly share and credit the contributions of others.
From the very first lesson, Iris takes students through her process using examples chosen specifically to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches. Restoration often feels like archaeology combined with reconstruction, requiring flexibility as each repair unfolds and reveals its own surprises. Her teaching complements my training as a violin maker beautifully, offering insight from the perspective of a restoration specialist — a related but distinctly different discipline of mastery.
It also dovetails perfectly with the Italian varnishing component of my fellowship studies, giving me a much clearer understanding of the layers involved in traditional finishing work.
One particularly valuable aspect of the course is the detailed discussion around materials. Iris covers both traditional materials and more contemporary advancements in restoration practice. While sourcing some of the more exotic ingredients required importing from Europe, many others were readily available locally. The course also includes discussions around safe handling practices and material safety precautions — something the scientist in me was especially pleased to see addressed thoroughly.
For me, the course has also been a powerful extension of things I thought I already knew. Seeing into Iris’ process has revealed numerous opportunities for refinement and improvement, helping push me toward the next plateau of learning.
Where her work particularly shines is in the thoughtful integration of more contemporary materials and techniques not traditionally associated with violin making. Her methods for rebuilding damaged surfaces — using fine shavings, specialised fillers, and compounds that mimic the optical properties of timber — are especially impressive.
While developing competence in these techniques is primarily aimed at higher-end restoration work, the benefits are already transforming the quality of repairs on my everyday “bread and butter” instruments. Better sealing methods to prevent colour bleed, improved filling and surface preparation, more refined colour application, and a deeper understanding of finishing materials have all significantly improved my work, often with very little increase in time investment.
Understanding colour building, varnish selection, mixing techniques, and brushwork has fundamentally changed how I approach finishing. Varnish is no longer a one-size-fits-all process. I now have a broader range of recipes and a far deeper understanding of how different varnishes behave, particularly in repair and restoration contexts.
And in quieter moments, I’ve been revisiting my old “box of bits.” One rescue violin top from a trade instrument — which sadly did not survive the kisses of time — has become a convenient practice sample for these techniques. Hairline cracks, missing sections, multiple fractures… it offers endless opportunities for experimentation, frustration, patience, and hopefully, eventual triumph.
Here is some of Iris’ magic at work.
Previous Fellowship Posts
- A Journey into Violin Restoration with Iris
- Some violin varnishing projects
- A Journey Through Violin Varnish Recipes
- Italian Varnishing – A Journeyman’s Tale
- Journeyman on a Fellowship: Exploring European Techniques
Fiddler Dan acknowledges a 2026 Creative Arts Fellowship to study European varnishing and restoration techniques. The Lord Mayor’s Creative Fellowships are an initiative of Brisbane City Council
