In a basement workshop, a fluorescent light flickers and illuminates walls lined with metal files fashioned into chisels, teeth scrapers taken from a dentist's office and chords attached to rotary tools. Another wall holds shelves stacked with bottles and jars filled with strange liquids.

A white-haired man walks into the small room, takes hold of a tool and starts his meticulous work. The subject is a piece of maple wood and it's getting a makeover. Jay Young will work with it and several other pieces of wood for about six months to fashion them into a violin, viola or the occasional viola d'amore.

Young started building violins in the early 1990s after a friend gave him a box of wood, a book and the promise of helping him make his own violin.

"He went off and got married in Australia and never did help me. So I made it on my own," Young said.

Young was working full time as a crane operator for Geneva Steel when he started building violins. It was just a hobby, so Young took one year to complete the instrument.

In 1992, Young met Dale Stevens, an award winning and internationally acclaimed violin maker. Young said Stevens spent over an hour with him and after looking over the violin, asked Young to start coming to Salt Lake City to receive instruction.

"I don't think he ever taught anyone else," Young said. "That's where I started learning the real art of making violins."

Young has sold, fixed and restored instruments from many different states and countries across the world - from Texas to New York to Russia.

While playing in the American Fork Orchestra, Young began building more than just regular violins when he was able to borrow a viola d'amore from the conductor. He took precise measurements of the conductor's instrument and drew up blueprints. From those he built his own viola d'amore and now sells the plans and instruments to people across the world.

The viola d'amore, which means "viola of love," is a 17th- and 18th-century version of the modern four-string viola. With 14 strings, the viola d'amore is designed for solo performances. Seven strings on the top are played with a bow while the seven strings below the fingerboard reverberates and create a fuller sound than a regular violin or viola.

Young said traditionally a blindfolded cupid is carved on the end of the viola d'amore neck to represent how love is blind and consequently gave the instrument its name, "viola of love." In order to make a traditional viola d'amore, Young also learned to carve. He can sculpt anything a customer requests, from the ordinary to the eccentric.

"There was a lady who wanted a violetta ... [and] she sent pictures of a good looking guy with long hair," Young said. "It was her garbage collector. She just liked the guy and wanted his head carved on it."

Although Young has sold instruments for as much as $9,000, he has been known to give some instruments away. When a mother came to Young with all her children who wanted to play violin, he unexpectedly gave one of the daughters her own violin, free of charge.

"There was a little girl who about cried because she walked out with her own instrument," Young said. "It was a cheap one, but still, you don't know what will happen after that. ... It's more important that they play than for me to charge a lot."

Young's wife, Glenda, said he is following the example of his mother.

"She used to clean people's houses and tend people's children so he would have the opportunity to take lessons. So now he's doing his own thing to give back," Glenda Young said. "He has a tender heart."

Young's generosity extends beyond instruments. One of his grandsons, Thomas Jensen, said his grandfather is known for taking discarded items, fixing them up and then giving them to people in need.

"He's a very inspirational person," Jensen said.

Young's stepdaughter, Janeth Jensen, said she has seen their entire family benefited by Young's patience, talents and "vibrant love of life."

"I am hopeless as a performer but with his help and inspiration, I became a [music] teacher," Jensen said. "I have taught over 100 students in the last five years alone. I am sure I would not have done that without his assistance and constant support."

Back in his basement, Young takes down one of the many finished violins hanging from the ceiling. With a bow in hand, he plays his instruments like he builds them: not just with skill, but also with passion.

"To me, it's like a painting. You have to be artistic, rather than just mechanical," Young said. "Many make instruments like they do furniture - by machine. But it doesn't have the character that it does when you put yourself into it."

Then grinning he added, "I tell people I just fiddle around."

Copyright Brigham Young University 14 Apr 2008