Today we’d like to introduce you to Rozie DeLoach.
Rozie, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Caraway Strings began in my garage in 2003: a couple of dozen violins to rent out to local orchestra students for school. Over the years, I developed a passion for repair work, which led to the restoration of older instruments as well. Today Caraway Strings is a full service violin shop, offering sales of fine instruments, a team of luthiers for violin repair and restoration services, and of course, always – affordable rental instruments for the beginner student. Our relationships with many of our clients begin when they’re 12 years old, deciding on their first musical instrument for school credit. It grows from there.
Caraway Strings (named after my father – Wayne Caraway) was born out of a desire to work with my hands. The gifts through the years have been many: discovering the people who appreciated a proper instrument set up from the work of my hands, the satisfaction of maintaining instruments for local teachers, assembling a team of brilliant people, and matchmaking – finding the perfect instrument for the player. One of the biggest kicks of my professional career was actually officiating a wedding for two lovely people who met as a teen at my shop when they worked for me.
Who was Wayne Caraway? He also started a violin shop from his garage, that grew into a shop in Arlington. It is now managed by my mother, Aleta, and co-owner Jason Peoples – so if you’re in the mid-cities, Arlington Strings is the place for you. Many business owners in this field don’t have a relationship with the workbench, but it was important to me to structure my business so I could work with my hands daily. I sit right in the middle of my luthier team and we learn from each other, from basic set-ups to touch up varnish work to repairing broken cello necks. We make piles of woodshavings together.
Two years ago, I began a podcast with fellow luthiers from across the country – Chris Jacoby and Jerry Lynn. Both experts in their own right, we met at a violin restoration summer camp of sorts and were brought together by talks about how rare and how transformative collaboration can be in this field. Lutherie can be a solitary profession, and many are unable to bounce repair ideas off of others, even in the same town. It can be a profession where you are your own hardest judge, feeling the pressure to make consistently perfect work with imperfect hands. We named Omo podcast after Omobono Stradivari, least liked son of his famous father Antonio – a declaration that we all belong in this field. Today Omo has international listenership and contributors, and I’m humbled and happy to be a part of it. This year I bought a set of tonewood and started building my first violin.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The most difficult part of running this shop has been growing it to the point that I could afford to hire people to do the things I’m less inclined to do. Making woodshavings? FUN! Administrative work? Less fun for me. But I had to nurse along what I could until I could outsource it.
Please tell us about Caraway Strings.
Caraway Strings is one of the very few shops in the DFW area that specializes in servicing stringed orchestra instruments. We don’t sell saxophones or guitars. We do one thing and we do it well and we’re proud of the range of service we can offer within that narrow field. From the beginner student to the seasoned performer, we are able to cater to the needs of violin enthusiasts of all levels. To my knowledge, Caraway Strings is the only woman-owned or luthier owned violin shop in the area as well.
Contact Info:
- Address: Caraway Strings
209A West Main Street
Richardson, TX 75081 - Website: wwww.carawaystrings.com
- Phone: 4693291040
- Email: info@carawaystrings.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ , https://www.instagram.com/roziedeloach/ , https://www.instagram.com/omopodcast/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carawaystrings
- Other: https://www.omopod.com/
Image Credit:
Austin Lochheed
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