At that time, I wanted to make my own violins, but Frank concentrated on just the restoration and the repair of instruments, so I put aside my desire to make them and I just learned that. For example, I learned how to cut beautiful bridges from him. The bridge is a very important part of any string instrument--maybe the most important part. The strings go over the bridge and the tone and pitch--the unique sound of any instrument--depends on the quality of that bridge more than anything else. It's an art to cut a bridge. Of course, my first bridges were not so beautiful; I developed with experience. But now I can cut a bridge as good as the New York violin makers who are recognized as some of the best in the world.

In 1990, I moved to New York to work at Sam Ash Music. I opened the violin section there at the request of the owner. I left that place about three years later and then I opened up my first shop which lasted until my partner went bankrupt. So then, without a partner, I opened a new store and began working on my own. Actually, it is not completely mine. I'm sharing a space with a Turkish kilim shop and we are in the same room where he does his artwork on pillows. Kilims are Turkish rugs, which he buys and sells and repairs, and then he also does his own work when he has a rug that cannot be repaired--he cuts them up and turns them into very nice pillows. And that is mostly what he sells. So I do my violins, he does his pillows.

In my work area, I have my bench, my clamps, drilling tools and carving tools, my varnishing materials, and the violins waiting to be repaired. In good times, there are many violins, piled one atop the other. I also have my bows and, very important for me, I have my books. These books are about violins and violin makers. I have some ideas about restoration and repairs which I'm writing into a book myself. I'm writing it in Turkish for my fellow Turkish makers. Then I will translate it to English later. It is mostly about certain quick restorations and ideas that I have.

I come here every day including Saturday and Sunday because I never like to be away from my work. I usually arrive around ten and sometimes I stay until ten at night. And every minute of it I feel that there is something different happening that is interesting to me. Although I do the same type of restoration all the time, it is never quite the same. Each violin is different. The violin is much more human than many of us think. You look at the shape: it is a woman and it is very temperamental also. A violin does not sound the same every day. It is always changing. The very first thing I do when I come here is I play the instruments. I play all the ones that are being repaired and then I pick one and I say, "Okay, this lady needs some adjustment." That's how my day starts.

But I don't work at my bench all day. Sometimes I go shop around for some parts for the instruments, or somebody calls me up and says, "I have this instrument. Would you like to see it?" I give them an appraisal. And I work on my book. And I have started making my own violins. I have one instrument that I'm making and designing. I'll be completing it soon. Once before, I finished my own instrument and somebody bought it. That was one of the best things that's happened to me.

I love this job. I love it for so many reasons, but I think most of all it's because of the mystical yet beautiful form of the violin itself. The way I should describe this is by saying that I get to make the most beautiful sculpture that gives the most delicate sound next to a human voice. And in some cases, it is better than human voices. And it is mystical because the instrument keeps changing its sound. It's very hard for me to explain this, but I will try my best--just let me think one minute....The shape is rounded, everywhere it is beautifully round and that roundness creates such unique tone, which changes, as I said before, day to day. For example, there are some instruments that sound beautiful on a very humid day. In general, it should be the opposite, but it isn't always. There are so many secrets to a violin. For instance, I'm still finding out how much varnish that I apply to the instrument is being accepted by the wood. I mean, the wood is still alive, and I feel that's the mystical part. The varnish and the wood working together, accepting each other, living in beautiful harmony--creating the most beautiful harmony. I guess I really can't explain it.

I like my customers very much. They are my business, of course, but in a way, they are my social life too. I go to their shows, their parties, their other events. I support them and they support me. I really enjoy it. My customers are mostly professional musicians; I have a few famous ones. Many of them have done recordings. Most are classical musicians. I have a lot of people with the local orchestras and the Philharmonic. But I also have some Irish music players and some avant garde music players and then I have a few students. I charge around fifty dollars an hour, sometimes more depending on the job. A lot of my customers started with me when I was at Sam Ash's Music. They followed to my other shop and then followed me here. They are mostly very interesting people and very good players.

The most common things I do are rather simple--filling cracks in the peg boxes, smoothing the fingerboards, cleaning the instruments. But good players sometimes have very complicated problems. Many times, they want something very subtle. I mean, sometimes a customer comes in and just says "My instrument doesn't sound very good today." So then I am changing things subtly. I am trying to create the sound that belongs to the instrument--the sound that sometimes, the makers didn't find. I think many times I am not fixing, but improving, the instruments--improving the sound. So my customers, they all have ideas about what kind of sound they want. I like to listen to them explain their ideas. And if it can be possibly done, I follow their instructions, and if I don't agree, I let them know.

In general, I think am very open to new ideas. A lot of people who do this work that I know are very technical people. They are very stiff, sometimes very distant. Maybe they didn't study art. I cannot just say it, but studying art definitely changes the idea of being technical. You learn that you have to be loose somehow. You have to really feel things. I myself have become a much calmer person by doing this work. People always say that I'm really calm.

Of course, there's another thing too, which is that I use varnish and sometime you can get high from the varnish. You have to use ventilation, and I do, I open up the windows, and I make sure it doesn't last more than half an hour and I put it up in an area where the smell doesn't hang about. But still, if you use a spirit varnish, you get high a little bit. It lasts about three or four hours. To get rid of the side effects, I always eat very nutritious food. Plain yogurt is the key. And to take care of the liver damage that varnish may cause, I take cranberry pills which clean the system, and I drink a lot of water.

Also, I try to listen to New Age type of music when I do my work. This helps me a lot. The type of New Age I like is very soft. I feel calmer this way. It's filling. For example, Keith Emerson, from Emerson, Lake and Palmer, his piano pieces make me feel very calm. Also, sometimes I listen to Susan Cherney, who is in the New Age, and I listen to John Anderson of Yes. He's in the New Age with Vangelis. Those I feel are quite soothing for my profession.

There is nothing that I dislike about this work. Nothing. Well, actually there is one thing: I do not like repairing Chinese student's instruments. They are so bad, so unprofessionally made. These are beginner student instruments I'm talking about. Machine-made violins, violas and cellos from China and Korea, or sometimes made in Rumania or Czechoslovakia. I will only work on these once in a blue moon as a favor to a customer that I've known for a long time--you know, if they refer a student to me--otherwise I look at one and don't like it and I won't touch it. That is the only thing I don't like about this job: Chinese factory-made instruments. I will gladly repair other machine-made instruments. For example, in the United States, there is a company that makes exact copies of Stradivaris with machines. They sound incredibly nice, incredibly beautiful. I enjoy repairing those. My nightmare is repairing the Chinese or the Korean or the Rumanian or the Czechoslovakian. Otherwise, every day is a good day for me.

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TO ARCHIVE