Around the age of 15 I first attempted to carve a violin neck. I could not find a piece of wood big enough to make a guitar, and so being attracted by the strange shape of its curl, I chose to make a violin neck. I began chiseling on a branch obtained from a nearby forest and produced a crooked funny looking object.
Two years later I began building and designing theatrical sets, which turned out to be an excellent place to learn the basics of wood and metalwork and of making technical drawings. I soon realized I needed a different place to fully apply my creativity, so I began to concentrate on furniture and interior design, which allowed me to develop new skills and sensitivity to materials.
After a few years it became clear that this too was a step towards another profession and I made my transition into the visual arts. Initially I focused on traditional sculpture, carving wood and stone; at the same time I began to investigate the properties of light on materials and form through installations. This lead me into building robotic sculptures, which eventually played music and were exhibited as performance. I developed programming of interactive and artificial intelligence systems and learned a lot about electronics.
Much, much later, a lot of traveling around with the robotics band by train generated the desire for some small musical instrument that would entertain me during the long train rides without annoying fellow travelers. With that need came the idea to build a small electric stick-ukulele into which I could plug my headphones.
It went well. Already the second prototype proved to be a very playable instrument and I was surprised how easy it was to make a neck and fretboard that was better than the factory built ukuleles I already owned. All the years of precision engineering and electronic design during my times as a robot builder started really paying off here.
I was able to apply all my previously acquired knowledge and experience to wood and kept developing musical instruments.
Small feature about the workshop opening in feb 2014