Project 2 → Luthier
BRIEF
Celebrate Craft: create an outcome that champions an analogue craft in an informed and meaningful way.
CONCEPT
I chose to celebrate luthiery, the crafting of stringed instruments. My partner is in his final year of a guitar-building degree and shares a house with three other luthiers; hidden within their terraced house is a beautiful workshop filled with tools, wood and resins. Luthier is a publication that explores the craft of luthiery through the space in which it takes place and the tools it requires.
SOLUTION
The publication comprises two parts – a book of photographs that I took in the space, and a separate interview booklet.
The photo book invites the reader into the workshop, revealing its curious details: piles of wood shavings; scratches and cuts in the workbench; the patinated surface of a violin. Beside the images sit pages of verbs taken from my interview with Jimmy, which demonstrate the breadth of work and skill that luthiery entails. Fragments of sheet music for The Blackest Crow, a tune often played by the luthiers at their weekly folk session, run through the book’s inner margins. This deconstructs the music, reflecting the way that the photographs break down the workshop into small details.
The interview booklet explores the process of learning to be a luthier in more depth. Its long, thin format mimics the neck of a guitar, adorned with circles and lines referencing fret markers and strings.