If I had that many fingers I'd probably be able to play that darn bumble bee song a lot better.

Eva's new 1/8 violin arrived today. I bought it USED on eBay for $35 including shipping. I have to say, I am very pleased with it. It came with two bows, one of which is OCTAGONAL and I swear the frog is actually ebony and the mother of pearl is real. Oddly, it looks unused. They must have used the other bow instead, which doesn't look as nice. I was actually more excited about the bow than anything else. It looks like my bow, actually. It was fully loose when it arrived and has a nice curve. I am well-pleased. =)

The violin itself stays tuned and is pretty decent. It has a fairly small sound, but it is very small so I can't imagine what instrument of its size would sound really great. It has no brand or marking on the inside. It was used for a year or so by another child.

So, two thumbs up on my recent eBay tiny violin. Anyone need a 1/16???

LOL, good one!! Sadly, I am fairly certain it would grow if I added water.

I have been debating about writing about this or not. Her 1/16 is a Cecilio and let me tell you....if she needed it for any longer than a year, we would be in trouble. I feel like maybe as a public service announcement I should post what a Cecilio looks like after a year of hard use....but I don't want to dash anyones hopes of their Cecilio being worth thousands after it ages a bit. LOL.

Granted, she has dropped it more than once, but the way it broke when dropped was very odd. Like entire long thin pieces of it would fall off...revealing a soft, substance (at first I thought it was actually cardboard!) underneath the finish, which is also chipping and peeling off. It could definitely soak up water. I think if I submerged it, I could turn it into a big, soft full sized violin. Maybe a pillow. (having said that, I don't think I've EVER dropped one of my own violins or violas, so I don't know how they would break, nor do I know what they look like inside).

Both the bows that it came with broke. She has actually been using the bow from a different violin.

On the ones that broke, on one the frog split in half and the other one just...well you couldn't tighten or relax it. I think she finally dropped it - or possibly her brother did - and the whole thing splintered into two long pieces. I can't really say that's unreasonable, but it seemed odd that it split the long way. I dunno. I only ever broke one bow myself and I only broke the tip off.

The shoulder rest broke immediately (the pins that hold the legs on are far too delicate) but we did remedy that using paperclips, a little glue and a lot of optimism.  Her case held up pretty well.

If she sticks with the violin, I will frame it and show it off to company to embarrass her.

I wish I had pictures of the bow that split at the frog. I can try to get photos of the rest. But...all in all, it got us through the year.

She is mostly excited about the glittery puppy dog sticker that was already installed on the new violin, indicating where the fourth finger goes.