Creaciones en Madera- Woodcraft y Barquitas with Abe Liebhaber

Week of July 26, 2025

“Creaciones en Madera- Woodcraft y Barquitas”: Relaxation with Wood and Glue
Abe leads a hands-on experience working with wood in an open-ended program encouraging creativity and free play. Kids will create anything with high-quality finished wooden materials and fast-drying waterproof glues to make sailboats or floating votive platforms- or anything else. The boats could be floated in the pool in the evening with candles as a family activity.  Designed to be very low-key, fun, with child led creativity a priority.

Abe Liebhaber: I made my first bow with Lynn Hannings in 2011 at the University of New Hampshire Bowmaking Program founded by Bill Salchow, and continued my study of bowmaking with George Rubino, Matt Cooker, and Steve Beckley. Each of my bows is a handmade original from the preparation of the bow blanks from rough-sawn boards of pernambuco to the first application of hair before the final finish, wrapping and branding of the stick. Since 2016 I have participated in the Violin Society of America’s Bowmaking Workshop in Oberlin, Ohio, where I contribute to the group reproduction of interesting bows for great clients. This workshop has given me the opportunity to meet, work with, and learn from fellow bowmakers from the USA, North and South America, Europe, and Asia.

I love the materials of bowmaking and try to keep them in their natural, primary states as much a I can in the finished bow: Pernambuco, Snake, Ipe, and Katalox woods, ebony of many colors, abalone and mother-of-pearl seashells, and traditional as well as novel tip materials. I enjoy combining them to make bows that feel good in the hand of the musician with an emphasis on recreating models by makers known for bows with superior playability.

In addition to making bows, I continue to work as a professional cellist with a positions in the Arizona Opera and Camarada San Diego.