Ph
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when she was a seventh-
grader in Albuquerque, New
Mexico, Anne Cole first played
a cello, which she borrowed
from the school. “This one
was all carved up and scratched
up,” she says, “just completely
vandalized.” Disheartened
that anyone would treat an
instrument this way, Cole
brought it home over winter
vacation, took it apart, and
revarnished it.
“From then on, I told my
parents that I was going to be
a violin maker,” Cole remem-
bers. “But I had no idea how.”
The “how” involved years
of informal study: a how-to
book from the local library, a
violin-making kit given to her
for Christmas, and her piano
teacher’s next-door neighbor,
who let Cole watch as he made
instruments. She graduated
from the Uni versity of New
Mexico as a music major
“because that was the closest
thing I could get to violin
making,” earned a master’s
degree in cello performance
at UNM, and in 1967 began
teaching, moving from city
to city as opportunities became
available for her and her hus-
band, David, also a music teach-
er. In a kitchen in Los Alamos,
New Mexico, Cole finished her
first in strument, modeled after
Product Placement
Anne Cole
zoom
12 american craft aug/sept 19