M.de Hoog

Violinmaker/Bowmaker

I first learned Bowmaking with Bob Shallock in Paris in 1995. This was bowmaking in the French tradition. In the following years I was too busy with violinmaking to continue the craft. But later on in Dublin I got the idea of experimenting with Spruce and Larch for bows as they would have been made by violinmakers before the invention of the “modern bow”, made by specialised Bowmakers.

Very popular is the Spruce Cello Bow with its ease of play and open warm and projecting sound. The Larch Violin Bows, made in a Renaissance or a Baroque form after an 17th C. original recovered in Austria, are also in demand.

Actually when you get used to the lighter weight of these bows they work really well on Period- as well as Modern set-up instruments