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GREENSBORO -- Don Morgan has decorated floors, ceilings, walls and furniture in his years of painting murals and faux finishes.

"But I can't say that I have ever painted a violin," Morgan says.

Now, he can.

Morgan drew on his faux painting talents to make a wooden violin look like red marble.

He joined nine other artists who volunteered to transform 10 violins -- and one trombone -- into new, one-of-a-kind works of art.

Think of it as visual artists helping musical artists.

The Greensboro Symphony Youth Orchestra will raffle them on Dec. 6 to help finance its tour to Germany and Austria from March 26 to April 4.

The 61 high school musicians will perform in the Votive Church in Vienna and St. Andreas Church in Berchtesgaden, Germany, just across the border from Salzburg, Austria.

They will watch the Berlin Philharmonic rehearse at the Salzburg Easter Festival, then have sectional rehearsals with Philharmonic members.

Friends of the GSYO, the orchestra parents' group, wanted to help the young musicians pay for the trip, which will cost about $2,800 each.

So, parents Martha Herbolich and Anita Richardson organized the Painted Violins -- and a Trombone fundraiser, modeled after others conducted by orchestras elsewhere.

The instruments will be on display at several events, including Indie Craft Market on Friday, before being raffled.

Proceeds from raffle tickets that each musician sells will help them defray his or her trip costs.

Herbolich, a muralist and decorative painter, agreed to paint one herself. She and Richardson found artist friends -- several with musical interests -- to donate their talents, too.

They found used and new, inexpensive instruments. Some were new and unfinished blanks, consisting only of the body and fretboard.

Artists applied their talents in paint, fiber, mixed media and sculpture.

When they finished, Anita Richardson's father, Garland Richardson, added strings, pegs, tailpieces and sound posts. As a result, five can be played.

"I love how diverse they are," said Herbolich, who painted hers with a grasshopper and ants. "No two artists came up with anything similar."

When they found a trombone, Herbolich thought of local metalsmith James Quinn.

Quinn turned it into a sculpture of a trombone player by combining it with an empty propane tank for a body and a float for a head. Hook it up to a garden hose, and it shoots water from rubber tubing on its head.

Morgan faux-painted his violin, and Jack Stratton turned his into a nude female figure combing her hair.

Using his wife, Sara Jane Mann, as a model, he drew the figure on paper before creating it using wood stain on the body of the violin.

Louise Grape drew on her fiber-art skills, decorating her violin to create "Ludwig van Birdhoven."

Amy Gates named her vividly painted violin and case "Erica Morini," after the famed 20th-century violinist.

Beth Latture, formerly of Greensboro, mounted hers on found driftwood. She painted the violin to look like driftwood. A bead-embroidered soft sculpture became a starfish; painted organza became seaweed.

Naomi Keltz-Jones painted two -- one titled "Cat Graffiti" and the other "Dragons."

Painting a violin is tricky, Morgan learned. To faux-paint his, he suspended it from the ceiling.

"I had to paint all around it at the same time. You can't lay it down on anything because it's all wet."

But like others, Morgan enjoyed the challenge. "I love classical music," he said, "and would do anything to support classical music."

Contact Dawn DeCwikiel-Kane at 373-5204 or dawn.kane@news-record.com