Welcome

Please take time to look over my website; the gallery contains images of the bows I make. Details of costs are indicated on the price page. Some of my clients have been kind enough to recommend my work, please view their comments. Take a look at my workshop to see some of the work in progress.

My Bow Making Philosophy

After meeting and talking to many musicians of international reputation, my understanding of what they are looking for in a bow is "inspiration". Craft and workmanship, by themselves, in bow-making are not enough for the passionate musician, who is looking for something more - a quality which has been described by others when talking about my bows, as "SOUL".

Soul enables the bow to act as a catalyst between the musician and the instrument. It facilitates the free movement of spiritual energies - of the musician, of the instrument, and of the music - producing a circulating creativity which leads to memorable performance.

Soul is essential for a string player, and the articulation of this is the work of the bow.

Clearly, precision, skill and craftsmanship in bowmaking are essential, but these are only the foundations, not the ends in themselves. An obsession with technical perfection, the exact copy of a model, for instance, however distinguished it may be, squeezes the life out of the object itself - the exact antithesis of what my bows are intended to express.

This is where technical excellence must accommodate the maker's creativity, and mine is dedicated to imbuing the bow with life and SOUL. This is something felt by the discerning player, its absence is immediately missed in performance, and it is a quality yearned for by all. If your bow has this, it will express your soul.

Materials and Making Philosophy

Every element of my bows is made by me from materials of the highest quality. I use no bought-in or semi-finished parts except the adjuster screw (and bone tip when one is used). Usually adjusters are simply pushed onto the shaft (literally a case of a square peg in a round hole), but I secure them by means of a contrary thread cut into the shaft and button, and screwed home. The player's tensioning of the bow hair tends toward tightening the button onto the shaft, rather than loosening it, through normal use. I make all metal parts, including the shield inlays, from sheet silver or gold, bent and soldered in place where needed, and then hand-formed.

All this individual preparation of parts inevitably makes for a significantly longer build-time, but results in bows with originality, personality and individuality. This is especially true when they are made to specific order, as I much prefer, after thorough consultation with the player. We discuss specific requirements (which can include the need to match with a particular instrument and its characteristics), and aspirations - what it is the player hopes the Howard Green bow will help them achieve. Sometimes I may have to intuit a need from players who may be unsure of what precisely will help them; but as a cellist myself, I have the player's understanding of the complexities which a bow must handle, and as a maker the satisfaction of these (sometimes contradictory) requirements gives me my greatest pleasure.

Working to make a bow in harmony with both player and instrument inspires me; and to all the many string players for whom I have achieved this goal, I thank you for your trust and look forward to a beautiful future, continuing to make bows for great musicians, and enabling their music to resonate in our age.