Day 16: Tracing the Faux Body

Before shaping the body block, I decided to go ahead and map out the faux body. The faux body is necessary for a couple of reasons. First, the cello player rests the cello againt their upper body, which I believe will require an extension on the back of the body block. Second, the cello player grips the lower bout with his/her legs as a means of stabilizing the instrument while playing. My plan is to bend some nice flamed maple I picked up at Home Depot after ripping it to 1/2" thickness. I'm frankly not sure it will bend well, but we'll see. I can always substitute another light wood if necessary.

The first step in the process was to line out the measurements for the upper and lower body thicknesses. The body block is 135mm wide and I need the top to be 335mm and the bottom 425mm. These measurements are based on the instrument I borrowed briefly from a friend, Darrell Wallen, who was gracious enough to loan her to me for a few days of measuring fun. And, yes, I prefer metric at all times (old habits from my archaeology days).

Once I got the measurements solid and locked into place with a little painter's tape, I broke out two sheets of parchment  paper from the kitchen to do a some tracing. Yeah, the parchment paper I use for cooking. I want the upper and lower bouts to be graceful, even if the upper one won't be used for much, and they both need to be stable. This is my first crack:

It then realized that the lower one may be a little too long, not offering enough stability, so I put the top one through.

At first, I thought I might remove the bottom piece that runs through the top, but, in thinking more about it today, it might look nice to leave the X and it would provide additional stability. Tonight, I'll ask my in-house artistic expert (my wife) what she thinks. I'll have this question resolved tonight and plan on trying out some bending over the weekend.

Until next time...