I have been playing music for quiet a long time and always found that I needed to fix and tune my own instruments.
I started thinking about lutherie a bit more seriously when I made the journey up to Newtownards to the Lagan School of Lutherie with Sam Irwin. I finished a guitar that summer, a Lowden O model copy.
More recently I have finished a bouzouki, a pair of violins, a violin bow and thousands of concertina parts.
I find that all of these skills cross over when you make different kinds instruments.
Concertinas require a few more skills than the rest. It involves metal work (reeds), woodwork and leather work.