Starting the arching

I haven't posted about the violin building in a while, having been very distracted by the garden. However, the next couple of weeks will see a lot of violin work--we are going to attend a workshop on the subject, so it will be 24/7 lutherie.

These photos are old, but I have to get up to date...Having gotten the plates glued together and flattened, the first thing to do is to trace the garland onto the top plate. A washer is used to make another line about 3 mm wider than the garland; this will be the final outline of the plate.
I'm using an "inside-out" technique; I am hollowing out the inside of the violin, then carving the outside. This technique starts with drilling a hole at the deepest point of the plate, which is the intersection of two lines drawn from the upper and lower corners of the violin.
I have to say that this step made me plenty nervous; the ramifications of drilling just a little too far are pretty dire. It went OK, so now the task was to hollow out the plates so that the drill hole was the deepest part of the depression. Ideally, the hollowing should follow specific curves--the subject for the next installment.