Here I demonstrate the tools and material needed for making the rose for my latest baroque guitar.
The aesthetics of baroque guitars and clothes of that time in particular reminds me that they had so much violence, blood and physical suffering before their eyes that some strong treats with beautiful objects was needed to counterbalance...  ( - the kind of beauty we in recent times tended to consider a feminine category).  I took three pieces of the best sheep parchment I could get and cut the patterns with a very stable japanese knife I sharp on a "Bester" wetstone.  The parchment is a really strong tissue, it looks like a spounge as seen with a microscope.  The holes are made with a punching tool I made for the purpose, a rod of soft steel, drilled a 1,2mm hole in the end of it, hardened ca 850 deg. C, annealed at a few hundred deg. C , then sharpened. To make a rose is quite easy if you are a patient person and prepare yourself. I may do this in total silece, but to mask off the background noise from the streets outside I have a good soundsystem in my workhop. I listened to Yes, Hopkinson Smith and Mahler on a tube amp system driving small Celestion 3 speakers. Mono is even better for consentration since that does not disturb your orientation system with spatial information to the same degree as stereo sound. Getting the music right and keeping disturbing thoughts away, this repetetive work may possibly send you on a journey!