Sometimes, you need A Thing,
and it's not a thing you can buy, or if you COULD, it would take forever and probably not be right. Sometimes, it's far simpler to make The Thing than to try to acquire it, and sometimes it's not simple at all, but the only way to array oneself without compromise. I try to convince myself that if I need a Thing That Does This, I can usually have it within a week, if I get off my monkey ass and construct it.
Take, for example, this bass (left). Sometimes all that's at hand is a garden-variety modern string bass that, fortuitously, features an archaic Viennese pattern, when what one NEEDS is a Baroque-style bass. So I had to Baroque-ify it. It was the only way.
Take, for example, this bass (left). Sometimes all that's at hand is a garden-variety modern string bass that, fortuitously, features an archaic Viennese pattern, when what one NEEDS is a Baroque-style bass. So I had to Baroque-ify it. It was the only way.
Sometimes, you need a tailpiece for your gamba. You can't buy these. But, you do have a hunk of rosewood that was formerly the fingerboard from a Kay bass. How convenient. Made it.
Sometimes one simply must have a Henrician Tudor livery coat - that's not a dress, it's a coat, with gobs of pleats that positively WILL make one look fat; no need to ask. That's the fashion. And where are you gonna buy this coat? It's a little complicated to acquire really, really out-of-date haberdashery that pre-dates Goodwill. Made it.
It won't do to get one's swanky medieval boots all dirty, stepping on DIRT. One requires a pair of pattens. Now, these actually can be bought from a re-enactor's chandlery, but for your average self-styled overachiever, it's positively insulting to pay $50 for a perfectly serviceable pair when it's possible to blow 13 hours making something to show off.