Joseph Campanella Cleary Lutherie Workshop

By Mandolin Cafe
October 12, 2009 - 11:30 am

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Joseph Campanella Cleary

Post Mills, Vt. — The Vermont Instruments School of Lutherie has announced plans for a mandolin workshop hosted on their campus and led by Joseph Campanella Cleary, October 10-30, 2010.

Joseph is a graduate of the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, with a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and a Minor in Music and Geology. His experience includes extensive work with famed Idaho builder A. Lawrence Smart and violinmaker John Paul Moroz. As owner of Campanella Strings in Burlington, he was the recipient of a Creation Project grant from the Vermont Arts Council in 2005 and 2009. His work reflects the mandolin of the early 1920s with cutting edge 17th and 18th century designs and workbench techniques.

Students will build an A model mandolin in the Campanella style, combining traditional mandolin and violin construction. This model eschews plastic binding in favor of overhanging edges and inlaid purfling.

With a focus on an efficient and natural process derived from careful study of both mandolins and violins, the Campanella mandolin recalls classic violin-building.

Using hand planes for prep and joinery, gouges, finger-planes, knives and scrapers for shaping, students will learn the importance of effective sharpening, and gain knowledge of essential woodworking skills.

The Vermont Instruments shop is particularly suited to this course, due to its focus on process/technique and hand tool work—teaching universal lutherie skills.

The designs and specs taught in this course will be shared under a Creative Commons license.

Vermont Instruments is a short walk from Lake Fairlee, a beautiful swimming lake in East-central Vermont. The quiet rural setting is complimented by proximity to the cultural offerings of Dartmouth College, making for a relaxed but stimulating environment.

Additional information:
Vermont Instruments workshop page
Campanella Strings web site

Click the red map pin for driving directions to the Vermont Instruments School of Lutherie, 305 West Fairlee Rd., Post Mills, Vermont.

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