In the January 2019 issue of The Strad, luthier Kevin Kelly describes his geometrical method for violin design. This video is intended to provide a visual accompaniment to the article.
’In the past, there must have been a system of design that makers could easily understand and follow, with an order of operations in which one feature always follows another in a rational, step-by-step fashion. It would have a limited number of parts, and limited relationships between those parts, which could be manipulated to make various designs. Another way to look at it is that there must be a system of design that works in a way that is somewhat analogous to the way DNA works, albeit in a very limited way. My Four Circles system was devised to mimic the process that I see in the composition of classical Cremonese work.’ – Kevin Kelly