 One of
the areas on a guitar where a maker can truly express their artistic talent,
is the decoration surrounding the sound hole. The time consuming and meticulous
intarsia found on the guitars of the great masters like Romanillos and
Torres offer us a slight glimpse into the creativeness and spirit put imbued
in their instruments. Rarely are two examples exactly the same, yet often
the work is readily recognizable and even copied.
Rosettes are created from thousands of tiny pieces of wood, arranged in a specific pattern to achieve a design that is both aesthetically pleasing and unique. The uniqueness of the hand made rosette far exceeds the mass produced, and the designs can manipulated according to the feelings and judgement of the maker for each individual instrument. I feel that guitar making is a contemplative and deeply personal craft - and I seek to imbue my guitars with spirit and life. A guitar maker presents them self to the world through the quality and creativeness of their work. I take a personal interest in every guitar I make on every level, and it stays with me. Every guitar I've made reiterates to me who I was and what I felt at the time in a very specific way when I'm able to see it again. The small details though they may go unnoticed upon a cusory glance, truly have a connection to the personality of the maker. For these reasons I have spent the past two years experimenting with and refining rosette designs until I finally had a design that fulfilled my vision for my guitars. I've worked at length with an extremely talented sculptor in developing a sense of aesthetics that is refined and complicated, yet appears simple and effective. |
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Most rosettes are made from a mosaic of veneers of various colors glued together to create an attractive pattern. While in most cases I prefer the traditional approach I have given a lot of thought to the construction of the classic Romanillos rosette, and chose a method inspired by it. The difference is that instead of gluing veneers together to create a design made up of tiny squares of the same shape, this method requires different pieces of wood to be different sizes and shapes to execute the design. This rosette is new for 2004 and is the standard for my latest guitars. It is an interwoven design made of only natural woods - nothing dyed. It is achieved by creating a log from which the pieces of the central motif are sawn from and inlaid in a circle just slightly larger then the circumference of the sound hole. Later, decorative borders are added to complete the design. When finished the rosette contains more than 3300 individual pieces of wood. |
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