Dominik Tomasek

Dear maestronetters, I have decided to start my own bench thread since I had never shown my work here on the forum before. Still experimenting with the varnish though... I enclose pictures of my recent instrument after Guarneri del Gesù. Antiqued oil varnish. Thanks!

Very appealing - thank you for posting again!

Lovely varnish Michael! Did you mix the oil paint right into the Tru-oil or did you apply it any other way? Thanks!

It indeed is. Using beech for the ribs is perfect. It cuts like butter and bending it is beyond easy. The look under varnish is quite appealing too. I do also have very good experience with using quatered beech for small viola backs. The plate generally needs to be a bit thinner than maple back, but it gives the instrument sort of deeper sound as you can even hear in del Gesú's Terminator for example.

Evan, since the first time I have seen the viola I am wondering how it sounds? Thanks!

There are colour extracts made by JOHA in various colours including black. I used these to colour my clear varnish (oil/spirit) with great success... https://www.joha.eu/de/farbstoffe/farbextrakt/farbextrakt-schwarz?c=305

How much and in what state (as is/dissolved) did you add the lime?

Dear Giovanni, is it possible to tell the thicknesses of the front and the back? Thanks D.

Dear RobertL, did you use the W&N dammar varnish straight out of the bottle? I once, from no obvious reason but mainly as an experiment, tried to use Umton Dammar varnish (used for varnishing paintings obviously) but with no luck. Although it dried fairly quickly and seemed to be hard enough, I could not touch the instrument as the heat of my hand made the varnish sticky almost immediately.

Seems to be based on del Gesú's Messeas, am I right? Nice work Tets!

Dear Melvin, I have always found your work to be endless source of inspiration and I am unhappy to see that you no longer post your truly amazing work into this thread. Do you please by any chance consider posting into your "MN bench" again? Thanks Dominik

What makes you think that, Nathan? Thanks Dominik

This is my favourite video about violin making. François Perrin making an exceptional viola.

Dear DavidS, what is the fingerboard projection? From one of your photos it seems to me that it is rather low.

I do opt for beech. It is not similar to any plain maple I've worked with but it strongly reminds me of beech I used to either scrolls or back plates of my small violas.