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The Courier Salutes...J%» OdoMult;£ifU (sdtdLThe ingenuity of mothers, when it concerns their children, is positively amaz-j ing.What would you Ho ifyour four-year-old wanted desperately to learn to play the violin and one small enough for her couldn't be found? Mrs. Georg^ Smiley faced that situation very simply she made one! And now Juiia is learning to play on her own small instrument. one sixth of normal size, an instrument which surpasses her mother’s for tonal qualities.The Smileys live at Sunny-slope where Dr. Smiley is medical director and superintendent of the sanatorium. They have daughter. Margaret,bachelor of arts degree. Mrs. Smiley is a registered nurse, taking her training in Chicago. She has two years of medicine at the State University of Iowa and studied at Washington university in St. Louis. She became in- ' terested in industrial arts while living at Oakdale sanatorium ! and studied art and industrial-arts at the State University of Iowa.Since coming to Ottumwa,Mrs. Smiley has affiliated withanother now two.At the suggestion of a friend who plays violin with the Kansas City Philharmonic, Mrs. Smiley sent for the book. ’ You jCan Make A Stradivarius Vio-!l’n,” bv Joseph V Reid. Then the fun began. The book contained detailed instructions and patterns, but all for full-sized instruments, so it became necessary for Mrs. Smiley to reduce the measurements to the size of a sixth violin.ONCE THE PATTERV wasset she discovered she didn’t have the proper tools, and to purchase them would cost about $500. so she enrolled in the adult education machine shop class at the high school and by the time she was through had made the necessary bending irons, small planes, blades and clamps.A local carpenter gave Mrs Smiley a piece of wood which, when it was cleaned, turned out I to be a beautifully grained piece of curley maple which is now the back of Julia's violin. The front is spruce and the fittings are rosewood.It took Mrs. Smiley about seven months to make the tools and instrument, working about two hours a day, for it is painstaking work, as the ‘belly” of the violin is of different thicknesses and must be gouged, scraped, sanded and planed to the required thinness. However, so successful was her first attempt. when the Smileys went east this summer they brought back with them some 40 year old spruce and maple board which Mrs. Smiley is planning to make into a viola da gamba a bass violin common in the 1600 s.THE FAMILY is particularly interested in antique musical instruments and have a set of recorders. These are wooden flutes with eight holes which were the common flutes before the invention of the present transverse type. They were made in various sizes and extensively used in early England and come in soprano, alto, tenor and ba.-s Julia can play a 13th century number on her small soprano recorder and both Mrs. Smiley and Dr. Smiley play. They have made tape recordings of some early 13th and 16th century music. Recorder making and playing is making a strong comeback in the 20th century and music for them is obtainable Important though it is. the household does not revolve en tirely around music for Mrs Smiley is also an accomplished painter A number of her oils are on the walls and Ottumwans have seen her black light Christmas murals on the grounds at the sanatorium.A GRADl ATE of Grinnell college where she received athe local branch of the Amer- ^ uan Association of University! Women. Besides muaic. musical instruments and paintings her { hobbies include reading and she enjoys working in the Smiley’s i workshop which would make; any do-it-yourself fan green with envy for it is equipped for most any kind of work Right now, Mrs. Smiley's project is refinishing a set of chairs.Iii the workshop in the basement of the home of Mrs. George Smiley at Sunnyslope, she calipers the belly of a violin she is making before completing the job of gouging, planing, scraping and sanding it to correct thickness. (Courier photo.)
Newspaper Details
Ottumwa Daily Courier
Ottumwa, Iowa, US
Sat, Jul 26, 1958
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 03 Mar 2024
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