Northern Sun Fiddola

 

Varnishing a Northern Sun Fiddola

The instrument in the photo is one of my Northern Sun fiddolas. It has been tanning in my UV box for several weeks, and I’ve already applied the ground coats to prepare the wood for the actual coats of varnish. I am doing a little highlighting with colour on the ribs here in this photo. I varnish with spirit varnish, which requires many, many coats. However, this means I can build complex colours and play around with shading and polishing to get a real sense of depth in the varnish.