Patrick Barden

After leaving school, I trained to be a horticulturist at Greenmount college in Ireland. Following my graduation, I worked in the family Nursery & Garden Centre, Cloughreagh Nurseries, for 10 years. It was during this period that I developed a passion for instrument making and undertook night classes to make an acoustic guitar. Following completion of the guitar, I discovered that my enthusiasm for instrument making surpassed that of the Nursery, and to this end I enrolled in Newark school of Violin Making. Here I committed to completing the full thee year diploma in just two years through hard work and determination. The devotion I had for violin making made this commitment possible, and in 2005 I passed the course with merit and also received a Bears diploma. The interest which I developed for violins spilled over into violin bows, and in 2006 I travelled to Salt Lake City, Utah to study bow making. I then returned home to Ireland in 2007 and established Patrick Joseph Barden Violins, where I tirelessly attempt to recreate that sound, varnish & style which can only be described as “Cremonese”. Although I have completed my academic studies in violin making over a decade ago, since then I have not stopped researching, developing and experimenting with the methods of the Cremonese makers to attain a more authentic sound with every new instrument.