lord mayors creative fellowship Archives - Fiddler Dan Violins & Workshop, Brisbane

A Journey into Violin Restoration with Iris

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.

Violin restoration – A test piece to practice on

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, of which I did the restoration course on crack repair and retouching.

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.

Doing a quick scratch repair on a student instrument using some of Iris’ processes

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.

Violin Restroation: Some ingredients needed

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

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

Some violin varnishing projects

One of the ways to practice my varnishing skills is to work on in-the-white instruments, instruments that have been made but not varnished. These skills have recently been augmented by my Lord Mayors creative arts fellowship where I have been learning varnishing from a 3rd generation Italian violin maker. Below is the journey of my practice instrument, a corner-less medieval violin. Here I applied and experiemented with the various stages of surface preparation and bringing out the flame, the ground coat, first few layers, colour layers with highlights (violins look boring if they are just a uniform colour), some light antiquing effects, before the final clear coats. It’s quite a journey to watch the colours and characteristics of the woods develop through the process.

Here also is a violin made from aged timbers – the wood is distinctly darker through the natural oxidation process. Aging is an important part of the seasoning process which helps the timbers sound their best, I am looking forward to hearing how this sounds. I like the classic golden colour so am sticking with it for a while and kept the highlights and distressing to a minimum.

Violin in the white ready to be varnished (after surface preperation and ground coat)

Midway through the violin varnishing process – its a nervous time….

Violin is varnished, setup and ready to play

UPDATE: It sounds fabulous and its interesting how the sound matures as the instrument is played and the varnishes cure.

Previous fellowship posts

Fiddler Dan is supported by a 2026 Creative Arts Fellowship to study European varnishing and restoration techniques. The Brisbane City Council Lord Mayor’s Creative Fellowships program makes this kind of deep, hands-on learning possible.

A Journey Through Violin Varnish Recipes

violin-varnish recipies — Some Violin recipie ingredients and a Violin after the varnishing process

One of the great mysteries surrounding violins is the world of varnish recipes. They have been studied extensively, often guarded as trade secrets, and endlessly debated among violin makers and restorers. Every professional and amateur maker seems to have a favourite formula, shared through workshops, books, professional publications, and the far reaches of the internet.

The role of violin varnish is more than simply cosmetic. A good varnish protects the instrument, helps stabilise it against changing weather conditions, enhances the sound, and highlights the beauty of the timber itself. Of these, the visual aspect is perhaps the most immediately noticeable, but all are important in the life of an instrument.

At its core, violin varnish is made from combinations of resins and gums dissolved either in oil-based or spirit-based mediums. These ingredients affect the varnish’s flexibility, transparency, durability, gloss, and how easily it can be applied. Dyes and pigments are often added for colour, though some colouring also occurs naturally during preparation and cooking stages.

Oil varnishes are generally slower drying and require longer curing times, but they tend to hide brush marks well and can achieve a deep, rich appearance with fewer coats. They also involve more elaborate preparation — boiling oils over heat is not for the faint-hearted. Spirit varnishes, on the other hand, are thinner and faster drying. They typically require more coats and demand careful application, but they are easier to prepare and widely used for repairs and touch-ups.

My focus here is mainly on spirit varnishes, although many of the principles apply equally to oil varnishes. This is the method taught to me by my teacher and by Sophia from the Vettori family (see this earlier post)

Lacs: Shellac, Seedlac and Sticklac

Many violin varnishes use various forms of lac resin. Lac is a natural secretion produced by the lac beetle on trees. It can be harvested directly from branches as sticklac, refined into seedlac, or processed further into shellac flakes or buttons. It is also available in different colours and levels of refinement, including dewaxed varieties.

Shellac is one of the primary ingredients in traditional spirit varnishes and is typically dissolved in alcohol. It imparts a warm glow and subtle colouring to the wood beneath.

Shellac and methylated spirits can be purchased from most hardware stores, though the quality is often fairly rough and may contain waxes and impurities that require filtering or settling. Hardware-store alcohol is usually around 95% purity and works adequately for many purposes. However, higher-purity alcohol (99–100%) combined with quality dewaxed shellac flakes — such as blonde, garnet, or super-clear shellac — can noticeably improve the final finish.

A simple shellac-and-metho mix works very well for repairs and general finishing. The downside is that it dries extremely quickly, which can make brush application challenging. For this reason, some makers using straight lac-alcahol prefer spraying or airbrushing spirit varnishes. The vast majority however use additional addatives to better support brushing…and for other reasons

Oils

Although oil is the main component in oil varnishes, small amounts are also commonly added to spirit varnish recipes. These oils help improve brushability and slightly extend drying time, making the varnish easier to work with.

Common additives include linseed oil and spike lavender oil, both used sparingly. Too much oil can soften the finish excessively or interfere with curing.

Gums and Resins

Violins are constantly vibrating, and many makers believe that adding small amounts of gums and resins contributes to long-term flexibility, tonal response, and optical depth.

Popular additions include elemi, colophony, sandarac, and benzoin.

Elemi has a soft, almost chewing-gum-like consistency and helps improve elasticity.
Sandarac is a very hard resin, somewhat like rock candy, that adds gloss and hardness.
Colophony — the same material used in violin rosin — was historically common in Central European varnishes, particularly Czech instruments. It creates a hard finish but can also become brittle and prone to cracking over time.
Benzoin adds warmth and softness to the finish and can subtly affect the aroma of the varnish as well.

One well-known spirit varnish formula, the famous “1704 recipe,” incorporates several of these ingredients.

Colouring the Varnish

Varnish colour can come from many sources. Some ingredients naturally darken during preparation — cooked oils, for example, often deepen in colour over time. Different grades of shellac and lac also range from pale blonde through to deep garnet tones.

Additional colour can be introduced using liquid dyes or finely ground pigments. Pigments may be mineral or plant based, and some are altered through heating or burning — raw sienna becoming burnt sienna, for example.

Care should be taken when selecting pigments. Some traditional pigments are toxic, so it is important to research safety precautions before handling them. Pigments can also become overly opaque, obscuring the grain and flame of the timber if overused. Transparent colouring methods generally preserve the beauty of the wood more effectively.

A Popular Recipe: The “1704”

If you are just starting out, a simple shellac-and-metho varnish is inexpensive, easy to obtain, and perfectly usable. When you are ready to experiment further, the famous “1704” recipe is one of the most widely discussed traditional spirit varnishes.

The recipe is often associated with the workshop traditions of Antonio Stradivari and was attributted by the influential violin maker and restorer Simone Fernando Sacconi. It appears in handwritten workshop notes and is referenced in the well-known restoration text by Weishaar and Shipman.

One common version of the recipe is:

180g ground seedlac
30g ground sandarac
30g elemi
15ml spike lavender oil
Spirit alcohol

The ingredients are dissolved together over time to create a traditional spirit varnish with warmth, flexibility, and clarity.

For those interested in experimenting further, the violin making manual at MakingTheViolin.com provides one version of the recipe and preparation method.

Previous fellowship posts

Italian Varnishing – A Journeyman’s Tale

There’s always been a lot of intrigue around Antonio Stradivari and his varnishing techniques. Was there a secret recipe? While there’s likely something to it, I suspect the mystique is a little overblown.

That said, the varnishing traditions of the Italian masters are absolutely worth studying for any aspiring violin maker. Whether working with oil- or spirit-based varnish, there’s a depth of knowledge—and yes, plenty of “secret ingredients”—to explore. While you can buy ready-made varnishes, making your own (at least a few times) feels like an essential part of the journey toward competence and, eventually, mastery.

Traditionally, makers guarded their methods closely. Part mystique, part self-preservation—protecting both their product and reputation in what has always been a somewhat parochial and capricious classical music world… and perhaps still is.

Why I Chose Spirit Varnish

For my own work, I’ve chosen to pursue spirit-based varnishing for a few reasons:

My teacher’s methods are based on spirit varnish, giving me a solid foundation to build on
Boiling oil is about as dangerous as it sounds—even for someone with a chemistry background (yes, I did experiment… just enough to know it wasn’t my rabbit hole)
Most restoration work relies on spirit-based finishes—they dry faster and are more adaptable when working with additives
In practice, both oil and spirit varnishes oxidise/evaporate, and the end results are often closer than purists might like to admit

Learning the Italian Way

So how does one learn authentic Italian varnishing?

I briefly considered packing up and heading to Italy (sorry kids—no dinner for a month, Dad’s off chasing varnish secrets). A more practical path emerged through the luthier community, where I came across Sophia Vettori.

Sophia is a highly regarded third-generation Italian violin maker, with instruments that command premium prices and have long waiting lists. She’s also part of a newer generation of makers who are willing to share their knowledge rather than guard it.

Her varnishing course—largely asynchronous and supported online—offers direct access to her expertise, along with a community of makers working through the same material.

The course focuses on traditional preparation methods, starting from raw ingredients, rather than pre-made mixes. That means working with pigments and resins to create your own varnish from scratch, then learning how to apply and develop finishes, including antiquing techniques. This was an important aspect for me

It’s a blend of family recipes and modern insights gathered from her broader luthier network. This community itself is a real strength—people coming to luthiery from all directions, sharing knowledge, solving problems, and contributing to a kind of collective “hive mind.”

Varnishing ingredients are all around us..don’t drink this though

Sourcing Materials (from the Antipodes…)

Getting started from this corner of the world has its challenges.

Oddly enough, the modern wellness movement has been unexpectedly helpful—essential oils and resins used for incense often overlap with traditional varnish ingredients. A bit of “OOOmmm…” goes a long way.

For other materials, I’ve had to order from European suppliers, navigating the usual dance of what can and can’t be shipped internationally.

A collection of pigments and resins from Kremer pigments in Europe

Where the Learning Happens

As I’ve worked through Sophia’s methods, I’ve started to see clear intersections with what I learned from my teacher, alongside techniques used by other luthiers I know—plus a light dusting of undergraduate chemistry.

It’s in these intersections that real learning happens.

Not just intellectually, but physically—through the hands. Feeling how materials behave, seeing how layers develop, and asking better questions of both the process and the people around me in my community. Sophia also hosts an online community, there is a great deal of expertise there and just sharing the path with others puts you in a kind of virtual workshop community of people engaged in doing the same thing..very cool.

For me the learnign process brings to mind the idea that simplicity comes from complexity. You have to wrestle with the detail before arriving at something that feels natural and refined.

Building Depth Through Practice

For now, I’m working through her grandfather’s recipes—learning through repetition, feel, and observation.

Each stage builds on the last:

Surface preparation
Sealing
Building varnish layers
Developing colour
Highlighting and antiquing

Through this, I’m developing a much deeper understanding of colour, lustre, and depth. It’s also sharpening my eye when assessing other instruments—and already proving invaluable in repair work.

That understanding of layers—what’s happening beneath the surface—makes a real difference. It’s something I expect to deepen further as I move into formal restoration training.

Final Thoughts

Whether I’m working on a modern instrument, one of my own builds, or restoring an older piece, I now have a much deeper well of knowledge to draw from—something I hope my clients notice and appreciate down the track .

My thanks to Sophia Vettori for sharing her knowledge so generously, and for helping me further along this less-travelled road.

Other fellowship posts

Journeyman on a Fellowship: Exploring European Techniques

Stepping into the somewhat closed world of luthiery some years ago, I managed to find my way in under the watchful eye of violin maker David Brown—a long-time friend and resident maker at Montsalvat artist community in Victoria.

Further down the track, I had the opportunity to work alongside David Clark in Brisbane at Animato. A high-end cabinet maker in a previous life, he brings a wealth of knowledge about working with wood. There, I also experienced the production environment of a violin shop—repair work, workflow, and the rhythm of instruments coming across the bench—a valuable complement to traditional practice.

During this time, I also connected with others in the trade, sharing knowledge and learning from one another. Since then, I’ve been entrusted with instruments from across the community—keen amateurs, teachers, schools, and professional players alike. Somewhere in the midst of it all, a manner of expertise has begun to emerge from the sawdust.

At the same time, there’s the growing realisation that, as far as I’ve come, there is still much to learn—and ultimately, to translate into the pointy end of a chisel. I’m reminded of George Leonard’s writing in Mastery:

“Mastery is not about perfection. It’s about a process, a journey. The master is the one who stays on the path day after day, year after year.”

While I make no claims of mastery, I recognise the path—and take my small steps along it daily.

So, as I well and truly enter my journeyman phase of luthiery, the question becomes: where to next?

This is especially true in Australia, where expertise is lightly sprinkled across the country, not always easily accessible and often on the edge of retirement. One area of need that sits between my training in violin making and general repair work is restoration. Looking back at the clients I’ve had to turn away in previous years—many of whom still struggled to find someone to undertake the work in a timely manner—the gap became clear as a real need.

It’s here that I began to see where my own skills could grow to meet these unmet needs in the musical community. Developing restoration and varnishing skills in the authentic European traditions—particularly for older and higher-quality instruments—started to crystallise as the next step.

By a bit of serendipity, a friend and I were discussing the broader challenges facing the musical arts community, including the leap toward self-sustainability. I remembered that there were periodic fellowship opportunities supported by the Lord Mayor through a Creative Fellowship progrmme. I initially sought them it to pass on—but then came the lightbulb moment: why not have a go myself?

With the help of some generous supporters in the Queensland music community—people willing to articulate the need for these “old world” skills, and to vouch for my sincerity as an emerging luthier—the idea took shape.

So, thank you to long-time friend Timo Jarvela, string teacher and composer extraordinaire (with whom I once shared the front desk of a local orchestra many years ago), and to Warwick Adeney, long-time principal violinist of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, for your letters of support.

Thanks also to the Early Music Society of Queensland—for whom I’ve worked on a number of repair/restoration projects (some waiting quite some time for the right hands)—and to National Music, a Brisbane-based music and string instrument distributor serving schools and local retailers, for backing the application and supporting my current work.

I submitted an application for a Lord Mayor’s Creative Fellowship late last year—and recently heard the good news I was awarded a creative fellowship to study “Italian varnishing and European Restoration Techniques”

Through this fellowship, I’ll be learning Italian varnishing techniques from Sofia Vettori, a third-generation Italian maker who violins are highly sought after and specialises in varnishing; together with violin restoration techniques from Iris Carr, an internationally respected restorer who trained at Charles Beare’s in London after graduating from the famed Newark School of Violin Making (which sadly recently closed its doors to full time study).

Essential oils are for violin varnish recipies too 🙂

My first steps involve assembling pigments, resins, and materials from across Europe and Italy, alongside local art suppliers—and, inevitably, a few hippy shops for oils and gums. Diving into the course material and corresponding with the tutors, I find myself drawing again on my background in science. It feels a bit like being back in an undergraduate chemistry lab.

Once again, it’s that familiar intersection of science and music, striving to do my best and enjoying the learning journey.

Anyway—it’s back to the bench to grind some more pigments…

Putting it all together would not be possible with out the support and impetus of a creative arts fellowship from the Lord Mayor of Brisbane.