OUR Town
SPOTLIGHT
WO OD S H O P
WONDERS
Fiddle-maker Mike Anderson
A
WALL IN MIKE ANDERSON’S BACKYARD WOODSHOP IS MARKED WITH descending lines, each bearing a small inscription. These aren’t childhood height-markers – they’re records of the trees Anderson has cut down over the years. Red maple, spruce, willow – each has been cut into planks and placed in the eaves of his workshop to dry, a process that takes four or five years. It’s the first step in the long process of hand-making violins, violas, and cellos, something Anderson has been doing for 17 years. Anderson has long worked full-time restoring historic homes, and for many years had kept his hands busy after-hours carving bowls and making furniture. In 2000, his moonlighting changed shape when he cut down a mulberry tree in a client’s yard. He hated to see the wood go to waste, realized mulberry was perfect for making an instrument, and a hobby was born. Since then, he’s made 62 instruments. Anderson says he’s always been crafty. At 5, he carved figures in soap. “My parents actually let me have a sharp knife,” he says with a laugh. “Now that I have two grandphotographs by ANNIE COCKRILL
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