Reykjavík Grapevine - 16.06.2017, Síða 22

LIFE Jón Maríno Jónsson’s work-
shop, which he shares with guitar
maker Gunnar Örn Sigurðsson, is a
case study in an artist at work.
Violins and violas in various stages of
creation lay on tables and hang from
walls; a contrabass lies on its side, held
together by a series of clamps; beakers
and flasks of lacquers and polishes
line shelves. This is where Jón, one of
a handful of luthiers in Iceland, works
his magic.
“I've always been interested in
woodworking, but my interest in mak-
ing instruments didn't begin until
1995 or '96,” he tells us. “I just found
it fascinating to be able to pick up a
piece of wood and change it into this
form. That was the inspiration. I don't
play these instruments myself, but I
do have a good sense of sound. And of
course, in making instruments, you
listen to what musicians are telling
you about your craft.”
When Jón became more seriously
interested in mak-
i n g i n st r u ment s
twenty years ago,
he and his family
moved to England,
where he attended
Newark & Sherwood
College. This move
was fully supported
by his family, who
had for a long time
wanted a change of
scenery. “My wife
and I had been talking for some time
about living abroad,” he says. “You feel
sometimes that you're wrapped in cot-
ton living in Iceland.”
A prophet in
your own country
Soon after graduating in 2000, he
moved back to Keflavík, where he
had been working as a carpenter and
builder. But then the crash came in
2008, which influenced his decision
to become a luthier full time. Getting
his new trade off the ground didn’t
happen right away, though. “We often
say that you can't be a prophet in your
own country,” Jón says, chuckling. “You
can't just announce, 'Here I am' and
suddenly become a household name
overnight.”
Help came nonetheless, in the form
of the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra,
who were instru-
m e n t a l (s o t o
speak) in getting
h is burgeon i ng
workshop off the
ground. “I'm really
grateful for their
support,” he says.
“They accepted me
with open arms,
tried my instru-
ments and gave
me plenty of com-
mentary. That's how the discussion
began that I was making instruments,
slowly but surely. I don't advertise my-
self very much, but the word of mouth
has been giving me some fine returns.”
Jón finds it difficult to say what
kind of crafting or repair is most
challenging. At the moment we visited
him, he was in the middle of repairing
a badly repaired contrabass. Jón says
that having to think in terms of tenths
of millimetres instead of centimetres
or inches, as carpentry often involves,
was certainly challenging. But in many
ways, the challenge is part of the fun.
Everything from scratch
For example, Jón makes his own lac-
quers, using linseed oil, tree resin
and cochineals—the little bugs that
make Campari red, and stringed in-
struments a red-golden colour—along
with other secret ingredients. This
process takes months. “You don't have
any control over what's in a bottle of
something you buy from a store,” Jón
explains. “This way, I know exactly
what's going into the lacquers and pol-
ishes that I use on my instruments.”
Jón also enjoys drawing materials
from unlikely sources. A large ship
that wrecked near Reykjanes in 1888,
the ‘Jamestown’, had lots of lumber
on it. Thousands of planks from this
ship were used to build houses in the
area. He's used some of this wood as
the soundposts for violins and contra-
basses. “When wood gets older, it hard-
ens, which means it conducts sound
very well,” he says. “In Icelandic we
call the soundpost the 'soul' of the
instrument.”
His dream project is to have an Ice-
landic string quartet use his instru-
ments to perform compositions by an
Icelandic composer. But for now, just
doing what he’s doing is effectively
living the dream.
“As I say, my dream project is mak-
ing instruments, try to get them out
into the world, and for musicians to
enjoy playing them,” Jón says, with a
smile.
22 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 10 — 2017
The Soul
Of The
Instruments
A chat with luthier Jón Marinó Jónsson
Words:
Paul Fontaine
Photos:
Varvara Lozenko
“As I say, my dream
project is making
instruments, try to
get them out into
the world, and for
musicians to enjoy
playing them”