Making violins from seaweed

Emily Sheppard is on the left in the duet, Marlane Bennie on the right (and playing at the end, Emily plays the final piece). Both are professional violinists. Tasmania has some of the largest kelp in the world and Emily is also an honours candidate in Hobart studying ecological use of seaweed. Emily made a kelp soundbox for the amplifier chain for her violin at a festival a year ago when a mutual friend wondered if you could make a violin out of seaweed. She said try it, so he did. He first tried sewing soft seaweed into a violin shape but there were problems holding the shape. Further experimentation with the sewn violin approach led to violins that were more successful looking and sounding.

I decided to try classical luthier techniques, and this is a brief video showing the methods I used - modified for kelp. Not surprisingly kelp is a very different material from wood. It took about 4 months to work out how to do it - kelp can't be carved, sanded, or glued. But it is thermoplastic, so the sides and plates can be bent to shape. Kelp tries to regain its original form, so stiffening bars have to be put on the plates, and a carbon fibre rod down the middle, while the plates and sides are screwed to the timber.

Of course the magic of a traditional violin sound comes from the shape of the back and front plates, the internal fixings, and the timber itself - none of which is present or possible in a kelp violin.

Nevertheless the end result is pleasing - obviously not the rich sound of a wood violin - but surprisingly good. All the accompanying music is played on the kelp violins.

Here's another video made by Emily Sheppard showing myself and Roger making out violins:
   • Kelp violins | Interview with makers