Sorrento

[Gill]

My sister will be visiting Sorrento in a couple of weeks - lucky so-and-so! It's one of the two places I've always yearned to visit, simply because it has a reputation for fantastic inlay and marquetry. However, I know nothing more about the place than its reputation. My sister has promised to bring back anything which might be useful to me for marquetry.

Is there anyone here who knows Sorrento? I'd love to be able to give her some specific guidelines. Hopefully, when she gets back, she'll send me lots of photos of wonderful woodwork to post here.

Gill

 

[RogerM]

We spent a happy week there a couple of years back. The streets are typically Italian and reward explorers who wander aimlessly. If she's a first time visitor, she cannot miss out on visiting both Pompeii and Herculaneum - both worth visiting. Pompeii has it's own station and is easily reached for the price of a few euros on the Circumvesuviana railway directly from Sorrento. Take a full day over it and wear good shoes because the site is just huge!

Also if she likes walking, try the "Pathway of the Gods"along the ridge behind Sorrento and then drop down into Positano. Unbelievable views - and then catch the bus back to Sorrento.

 

[Harbo]

Sorrento is a lovely place. It is also close to Naples (bit of a dump) which has ferries to Capri which is worth visiting - though avoid some of the tours unless a Gracie Fields fan?

Shouldn't this be in the General Chat section?


Rod

 

[Digit]

I know the music, if that helps? :lol:

Roy.

 

[Gill]

Great tips, guys, but I'm really interested in the woodwork that Sorrento's famous for, not the tourist traps. That's why I posted on the General Woodworking Board.

So far, all I've found is this:

http://www.alessandrofiorentinocollecti ... index.html

Someone in another forum also gave me these links:

http://www.paturzo.it/musicboxes.htm
http://www.italianinlaidfurniture.co.uk/

The latter is a British importer's site, but it gives you an idea of what I'm looking for.

Gill

 

[Gill]

Here are some of the photos my sister took. She said it was a fabulous place and even someone like her who isn't interested in woodwork couldn't help but be blown away by the marquetry. It transpires she knows someone in the business over there through a friend; he gave her a personal guided tour of the artisans' workshops and offered to escort me around too if ever I'm over there. Sadly, cameras weren't allowed in the workshops.

I reckon I'll have to learn the lingo now because if I go over there, I want to be able to discuss woodwork with the artisans themselves.

Gill

 

[Digit]

Ye Gods Gill. Is this meant to encourage us or put us off! What superb workmanship!

Roy.

 

[Lord Nibbo]

This is almost beyond belief

Thank you for putting the pics up =D>

Imagine someone putting a hot cup of tea on it!

 

[Steve Maskery]

A couple of weeks ago we were in Firenze and went to the Pietra Dure workshops. Actually they were not workshops at all, although such work does go on for restoration purposes, this was just a museum. But the work was mind-boggling. The sort of stuff you've just shown but in stone. Lots of nature - flowers and birds - and you could see how the craftsman had selected the figure of the stone to indicate shadows etc. It was a bit like woodies would use a sand bath to scorch veneer for a fan, except that this was all in natural raw stone. Imagine sawing stone to a veneer of 2mm then doing the marquetry with it!

One of the things that struck me was the tooling. Some of the work was elliptical and the ground was cut out with exactly the same sort of 2-axis jig that we might use for a router today, except that this has been in use for a couple of hundred years at least.

Not really my bag, but impressive nonetheless.

Cheers
Steve

 

[Richard Findley]

Hi guys,

I've been to Sorrento and as you see there is some impressive stuff available. From what I saw, they cut shapes using a kind of wooden framed coping saw, they hold multiple layers of veneer together in a vice that looks a bit like the old carvers "chops" and cut away. I never saw the workshops but it would have been fascinating.

As for learning the lingo, I remember as a young kid, going round a Madiera wine place in Madiera (surpise surprise! :roll: ) and we were shown all the usual stuff about how it was made etc etc and we went through an area where an old boy was making barrels using very traditional methods and tools, the tour guide gave a very basic touristy description of coopering and we moved on... except we lost Dad, turns out he stayed with this old boy "talking" about the wood work, only niether spoke a word of each other's language!!! Dad joined us at the end of the tour, just in time for the tasting!!! It just shows that the language of wood work has no boundrys!!!
8)

Cheers,

Richard