Making a Spiral Rainbow Rosette

by David Freeman

Originally published in American Lutherie #111, 2012



At the 2011 GAL convention, I was asked by a few people about the construction of my spiral rainbow rosette. I use colored purfling strips and spiral them from the outside of the circle to the inside, with various filler patterns between. In my original design I used all the colors of the rainbow, but I have since worked with different color combinations.

I install the filler first. In this example, it is a sequence of koa, padauk, zebrawood, and holly bindings, alternated to create four quadrants in a bookmatched look. There are two walnut triangles just below three o’clock and nine o’clock to fill the joins there and visually ground the movement of the strips.