The Saintonge region of Charente-Maritime is rich in ancient limestone quarries.
Excavations have uncovered column drums marked with traces suggesting that, in ancient times, columns in this region were turned using vertical stone towers.
columns were turned using vertical stone lathes.

After wandering around the area and meeting with former quarrymen and stonecutters, I decided to take back with me some of the stones I'd salvaged from these abandoned quarries.

I then set about making a stand-alone lathe, in order to get to grips with the vertical stone-turning process. I adapted the dimensions to suit the stones available to me, and thanks to a change of axis on a bicycle I'd been tinkering with, I could pedal to spin the stone while carving it with a gouge.

Because the stones are produced by hand, they are all different. However, the marks left by the lathe - three holes at the bottom caused by the chuck and one at the top caused by the spindle - will always be the same.

I therefore decided to offer standard grafts that can be fixed through these holes and allow the stones to be assembled together.