What is ornamental turning?
The Ornamental Lathe
In plain turning, the work spins on a lathe while a tool is held in place to make a cut. In ornamental turning, the work is fixed in place and a spinning tool is used to make a cut. Then, the work is repositioned and the next cut is made one after another until the entire surface is decorated.
For more than two hundred years ornamental lathes were made to accomplish many forms including elliptical, eccentric, spherical, helical, rectilinear, swash and other complex designs. Ornamental turnery has been used to embellish plain-turned objects with designs that typically elevate them from utilitarian objects into the realm of decorative arts.
What is rose engine turning?
The Rose Engine Lathe
The rose engine lathe was invented nearly five hundred years ago. Today the machines are quite rare since many were melted down for their brass during the wars of the last century. The rose engine lathe differs from a regular lathe in that the headstock rocks on a pivot. It contains a series of patterned discs or cams called rosettes that consist of a few bumps or up to two hundred. As the work is rotated the mandrel rocks back and forth on the rosette while a tool is used to cut into the work surface.
Rose engine work, also known as guilloché, is most commonly associated with the renowned imperial eggs made by Fabergé in the late 1800s. Now, combined with modern techniques, the art of rose engine turning continues in new directions with contemporary aesthetics.
