Kelsey Watson

 “The world of lathes and machine tools was a complete mystery to me. That was until I walked into the Plumier Foundation one summer morning and before I knew it, I found myself falling head-first down the rabbit hole. Plumier is a nexus of art, history, and practical skills. Its core mission is to preserve and proliferate the esoteric craft of Complex Turning, but what that truly entails for its members and students is transformative.”

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Al Collins

Photo Credit: Al Collins

Al Collins is a retired cabinetmaker that made his own rose engine about the year 2000. Al was a co-designer of the MADE Lathe, and the “A” in stands for his name.
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Al Collins

Photo Credit: Al Collins

He also did the cabinetry on the first four MADE Lathes. Al does early style “fixed tool” work as well as many other forms including guilloche, and had produced a wide selection of specialized tooling.
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Al Collins

Photo Credit: Al Collins

Fixed tool Vessel in alternative ivory piece featuring motifs created by “pumping.”
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Al Collins

Photo Credit: Al Collins

Fixed tool Vessel in alternative ivory piece featuring motifs created by “pumping.”
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Al Collins

Photo Credit: Al Collins

Fixed tool Vessel in alternative ivory piece featuring motifs created by “pumping.”
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Roy Lindley

Photo Credit: The Plumier Foundation

Roy is an engineer, an amateur turner, and a practitioner of the rose engine. He is known for applying math skills from engineering to create complex shapes with ordinary tooling.

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Jean Claude Charpignon

Photo Credit: Jean Claude Charpignon

Jean Claude is a retired engineer who built his own rose engines from engineering lathes. He specializes in “fixed tool” work of the type done in the earliest days of ornamental turning and has set the standard amongst his contemporaries.
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Jean Claude Charpignon

Photo Credit: Jean Claude Charpignon

17th century style vessel of boxwood made with fixed tools featuring a Chinese ball with spirals protruding.
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Jean Claude Charpignon

Photo Credit: Jean Claude Charpignon

By Jean Claude Charpignon: 17th century style piece of boxwood featuring a stepped finial made with an eccentric chuck.
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Jean Claude Charpignon

Photo Credit: Jean Claude Charpignon

Fixed tool pieces with paint showing a more playful side.
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Jean Claude Charpignon

Photo Credit: Jean Claude Charpignon

Various pieces showing a small portion of the variations of the rose engine; even the double mast finials were turned.
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David Lindow

Photo Credit: Eric Spatt

David Lindow is manufacturer and restorer of clocks and ornamental turning equipment. He approaches ornamental turning from the standpoint of a metal worker and has developed a lot of tooling toward that end.
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David Lindow

Photo Credit: Eric Spatt

African Blackwood, boxwood, and amboyna burl box decorated on the outside with a drilling frame, the inside with a universal cutting frame, and the bottom with both has layers turned to tolerances smaller than a human hair in order to get the layers to not have gaps yet remained glued together.
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David Lindow

Photo Credit: Eric Spatt

African Blackwood, boxwood, and amboyna burl box decorated on the outside with a drilling frame, the inside with a universal cutting frame, and the bottom with both has layers turned to tolerances smaller than a human hair in order to get the layers to not have gaps yet remained glued together.
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David Lindow

Photo Credit: Eric Spatt

The outside of this African Blackwood box was decorated with a universal cutting frame and a dome chuck, the inside with a universal cutting frame following the contour of the outside.
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David Lindow

Photo Credit: Eric Spatt

The outside of this African Blackwood box was decorated with a universal cutting frame and a dome chuck, the inside with a universal cutting frame following the contour of the outside.
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David Lindow

Photo Credit: Eric Spatt

The outside of this African Blackwood box was decorated with a universal cutting frame and a dome chuck, the inside with a universal cutting frame following the contour of the outside.
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The Plumier Foundation

Photo credit: Square Moose

Objects made by the staff and volunteers at the Plumier Foundation.
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The Plumier Foundation

Photo credit: Square Moose

African Blackwood vertical standing box was done with a reciprocator on Holtzapffel No. 2195 and the inside bottom of horizontal box with Holtzapffel No. 1636 rose engine.
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The Plumier Foundation

Photo credit: Square Moose

African Blackwood boxes in two sizes decorated with the reciprocator, phased 180 degrees on ever other cut, on Holtzapffel No. 2195.
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The Plumier Foundation

Photo Credit: The Plumier Foundation

African Blackwood box with sides decorated with reciprocator on Holtzapffel No. 2195 and bottom side of lid with a drilling frame on the Holtzapffel rose engine No. 1636.
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The Plumier Foundation

Photo Credit: The Plumier Foundation

Pink Ivory, Mopane, African Blackwood, and Bethlehem boxes on which the outsides were contoured using a drilling frame for the fluting in conjunction with a dome chuck set on top of an eccentric chuck time out and set on an elliptical chuck on Holtzapffel No. 2157. The bottoms were decorated on Holtzapffel rose engine No. 1636. The lids were decorated on Holtzapffel No. 1636 with an eccentric cutting frame.
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The Plumier Foundation

Photo Credit: The Plumier Foundation

Pink Ivory, Mexican Porcelain Wood, Mopane, African Blackwood, and Bethlehem Olivewood boxes on which the outsides were contoured using a drilling frame for the fluting in conjunction with a dome chuck set on top of an eccentric chuck time out and set on an elliptical chuck on Holtzapffel No. 2157. The bottoms were decorated on Holtzapffel rose engine No. 1636. The lids were decorated on Holtzapffel No. 1636 with an eccentric cutting frame.
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The Plumier Foundation

Photo Credit: The Plumier Foundation

Mopane, Chakte Viga, Austrailian Beefwood, Cocobolo, and Olivewood, boxes decorated with a curvilinear slide and spiral apparatus on Holtzapffel No. 2157.
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The Plumier Foundation

Photo Credit: The Plumier Foundation

Pink Ivory, Alternative Ivory, Mopane, stabilized Holly, and African Blackwood boxes with sides decorated with a drilling frame and reciprocator or a universal cutting frame. The bottoms were decorated with an eccentric cutter.
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The Plumier Foundation

Photo Credit: The Plumier Foundation

Pink Ivory, Alternative Ivory, Mopane, stabilized Holly, and African Blackwood boxes with sides decorated with a drilling frame and reciprocator or a universal cutting frame. The bottoms were decorated with an eccentric cutter.
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The Plumier Foundation

Photo Credit: The Plumier Foundation

Cocobolo and Olivewood boxes with spheres and lids were made with an eccentric cutting frame. The bottom of the lids were decorated with a drilling frame in Holtzapffel rose engine lathe No. 1636.
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The Plumier Foundation

Photo Credit: The Plumier Foundation

Lignum Vitae, Alternative Ivory, and Pink Ivory boxes with sides were decorated with a reciprocator in Holtzapffel No. 2195, the bottom and side of the lid were decorated on the rose engine, and the tops of the lids were decorated with an eccentric cutting frame.