mini violin and cello

[nid_dabeille]

I posted the violin a while ago, and I also recently got a cello.  But I decided they were both a bit wrong, so I redid them Dr. Frankenstein style.

This was before their reconstructive surgery:


And this was after:


What I did to them:

• Removed the necks - they were both too thick
• Removed the scrolls - they were both too big
• Reshaped the cello's neck and fingerboard to accept the violin's scroll
• Reshaped the back of the cello's neck - the curved part where it meets the body of the instrument - and adjusted the angle and painted it
  
• Removed the neck and scroll from an old organ donor violin I had in my doll house (center left) to be used on the new violin, and painted it
  
• Removed the varnish - they were both just too, too shiny!  They looked new and a bit plasticky, and the way they reflected the light was just too chunky.  They didn't look realistic, but looked like small fakes.  They didn't look real.
  
• Applied new coatings of stain
  
• The violin body was much too thick, so I shaved out a section from the middle (center right)
  
• Made new bridges from card stock - the existing bridges were too thick and short
• Filled the square hole in the cello between the f-holes which had been the connecting point for the previous bridge
  
• Made new tuning pegs for the cello (to fit in what had been the violin's pegbox)
• Restrung them - the cello with thin jewelry wire and the violin with clear polyester filament
• Replaced the violin's tailpiece and anachronistic chinrest (thank you, Gunroom for that tip) with the tailpiece from the old violin
• The cello had an endpin that could be inserted (not pictured), but thanks to the Gunroom I learned that that was also anachronistic for my period, so I discarded it.

Cello in progress with a newly shaped neck (and fingerboard removed for the interim).  Varnish has been removed and the wood has just been newly stained.




Waiting for strings, tuning pegs and tailpiece.


Tuning pegs made from jewelry headpins.  The stringing nearly did me in!  I can't imagine making a model ship where one would have to do endless amounts of rigging with tiny tiny ropes.


Again, violin before:




Another after shot.


Cello before:


After:


Cello before:


After:


linked at doll_houses and little_world.

Comments

[tealight-rookie.livejournal.com]

Yay cello love!

Incidentally, you should check out this post (http://community.livejournal.com/the_polaroids/2067132.html#cutid1) in the_polaroids community. The miniatures are nothing like the quality of yours (not even 1/1000th) but I just love that they are taken by polaroid!

[grace-poppy.livejournal.com]

Yay cellos!

Those are cute pictures! And nice lighting and all. I always kind of wanted a Polaroid camera.

[tealight-rookie.livejournal.com]

You should get one (a Polaroid I mean! Though a cello would be fun too!) I absolutely love mine. Though since Polaroid announced that they're stopping making film it is almost impossible to get hold of any.

[grace-poppy.livejournal.com]

Well, though it seems silly, being a conservator makes me not want to use a Polaroid because I'm suspicious of the lasting-ness of the photos. I think they're rather chemically unstable (from what little I know about photograph conservation). But also, I just don't really do "real" photographs much anymore. I mostly just do digital, and even though it's perhaps not very stable either (from a conservation viewpoint) it doesn't bother me as much because it's not a physical artifact. I would feel irresponsible bringing into the world an artifact that I knew would self-destruct.

Hmm, I think I have issues. :D

One of my friends had a disposable Polaroid that only took little thumbnail sticker pictures, and that was really cute. I could probably handle that.