"Bill Housley is retired from the practice of cosmetic dentistry and is now a full time wood turner. His turnings are generally of the smaller variety meaning he refrains from turning pieces larger than 12” in diameter.His focus is on functional items and he particularly enjoys making kitchen turnings—cheese platters, cheese knives and slicers, steak flippers for barbecuing, pepper mills, tooth pick holders, and the like. Of utmost interest to Bill is experimenting with new and different techniques and tools for embellishing his turnings. With that said, Bill is the only Maine wood turner to employ a “Rose Engine”. A Rose Engine is a 19th century lathe that was made by the British during the Industrial Revolution. An expensive oddity, thus used primarily by European royalty to create exotic  turnings [carvings] often in Ivory because of its beauty and hardness. As the 20th century approached the use of Ivory was more and more limited and other very hard and exotic hardwoods from the tropics.  Rose Engines produced mostly small turnings with unique carved surfaces like figurines and lidded boxes.  Today Bill is embellishing many of his bowls, vases and candle holders with Rose Engine embellishing. He has even been experimenting with softer woods and adding color—something not done in 19th century Europe.The point of all this is to say that to obtain a Rose Engine embellished turned piece is to own a relatively rare turning. Bill’s rose engine is the only producing machine in Maine. Bill seldom does duplicate turnings—says it’s boring. Each piece stands alone. He will, however, accept the occasional commission if it is within his ‘realm’."  

Email: billhousle@icloud.com