Guilloché engraving is a precise, repetitive engraving technique that is carried out using round drawing machines, straight drawing machines or broaching machines. This technique is mainly used in the jewellery and watchmaking industries. The technique reached its peak between the mid-19th and early 20th century. One of its best-known applications is the famous Fabergé egg, which epitomises the finesse and sophistication of this technique.

Nowadays, only a few craftspeople have mastered guilloché engraving. This is not only due to the rarity of the machines, but also to the fact that the technical knowledge required to operate them has largely been lost.

In times of rapid digitalisation and the increasing integration of CNC technologies into traditional arts and crafts, the question arises: How can we preserve endangered craft techniques such as guilloché, reinterpret them and revive them in a contemporary context?

Thanks to the PF Revisited project, Zhipeng Wang was able to learn the technique and apply it to his own artistic practice. During his three-month residency at EMMA - Creative Centre Pforzheim, jewellery artist Zhipeng Wang learned to operate a traditional straight-line machine for the first time. Instead of merely reproducing historical techniques, he understood guilloché as an expandable language - and experimented with unusual materials such as mother-of-pearl and Chinese jade. His works explore not only the technical potential of guilloché, but also its cultural and conceptual significance. In this way, he locates the technique in a state that can be described as post-guilloché an attitude that honours the historical roots, but at the same time expands the vocabulary through innovation.

Pforzheim Re-Guilloché is not just an examination of an almost forgotten craft - it is a dialogue about cultural heritage, revival and creative transformation.

Zhipeng Wang is a contemporary jewellery artist from China, working both in China and Germany. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Jewellery Design & Art from the China Academy of Art in 2019 and completed his Diploma in Fine Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich under Professor Karen Pontoppidan in 2024. His works have been exhibited internationally, e.g. in China, Germany, Italy, Great Britain and the USA. He has also received major awards such as the Grand Prize of the BKV Prize 2024 (Munich), first prize at the Giancarlo Montebello Award 2024 (Milan) and the prize at Preziosa Young 2021 (Florence). His works are part of public collections, e.g. in the Auckland Museum (New Zealand), the Deutsches Goldschmiedehaus Hanau (Germany), Le Arti Orafe (Italy) and the China Academy of Art Museum.