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WIA St Charles: Composing with wood grain

September 3, 2009 By Al Navas

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Duration: 14 min., 55 sec.

Grain. Direction. Ebonizing and grain texture. Change of direction. Sculpted curves and flow. Building process. Flow. Chatoyance. Sam Maloof and inspiration… Woodworking in America, St Charles, Ill.

Brian Boggs uses “…the wood’s grain…to complement the overall piece…”  And he makes the components of his chairs flow together, to make a single statement. He uses curves in the design, and the grain of the wood, as part of the design.

In this session I gained better insight into things I should be doing with grain as part of the overall design of a piece of furniture. Does the grain direction work where the leg meets the stretcher? Or does it detract from the overall design? Is it supporting a curve, of flowing against it? And so on.

Using a few examples of chairs he shared with the audience, I focused on highlighting a few key ideas in the edited video of Boggs’ session. As a result, I hope to have caught the spirit of composing with the grain, in the way he intended to convey in his session. If I did not, it is my fault. But listening to him I realized he loves making chairs, and he loves composing with grain as he designs.

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Filed Under: Blog, Conference, St Charles, Video, Woodworking in America Tagged With: 2009, Brian Boggs, composing, Conference, grain, St Charles Ill, Woodworking in America

WIA St Charles: Arts & Crafts style: The unadorned truth

August 31, 2009 By Al Navas

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Duration: 20 min., 34 sec.

Arts & Crafts, Mission, and Craftsman.

Do you know the differences? I did not. But after this session, I am now able to tell apart them apart on my own – somewhat, as many of the nuances escape me. Bob Lang did a terrific job covering the period – he is a walking encyclopedia about this movement, popular with many woodworkers. He “…got into this…” in the 1970s, has written books about it, and talks about it authoritatively; and he researched all 16 years of The Craftsman magazine, while working on his Interiors book.

What was striking: I learned that the style is almost unrecognizable today, from its origins in 19th century England. Although many of the names associated with the movement were familiar to me, I learned about the top designers or the time, starting with Gustav Stickley and his brothers. Bob did a terrific job illustrating the differences between Arts & Crafts, Mission, and Craftsman pieces – I hope I remember all the information, for I would like to design and make some pieces in one of these styles at some time in the (near?) future.

My hope is that this edited version of Bob Lang’s session will give you a sense of his depth of knowledge about the Arts & Crafts style. And that my editing reflects the true spirit of his presentation – all shortcomings in the video are my own.

If you get a chance, plan to attend one of the Woodworking in America conferences.

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Filed Under: Blog, Conference, St Charles, Video, Woodworking in America Tagged With: Arts & Crafts, Craftsman, Design, Mission, style, Woodworking in America

WIA St Charles: Furniture formulas – Measure twice, measure not at all

August 26, 2009 By Al Navas

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Duration: 15 min., 23 sec.

Freedom. Free to design something as “simple” as a footstool, or as complicated as a desk, without a computer program, a tape measure, or even a rule. That is what Jim Tolpin’s presentation was all about.

Jim’s presentation took the audience from the workmanship of certainty using machines, to workmanship of risk using hand tools. He showed how, in working the wood by hand, the approach to the work also changes. To minimize the risk takes “care, dexterity, and judgment”. In the process, mastery is achieved. This typically takes at least 10 years and 10,000 hours, and is the norm in the trades. For all woodworkers, the artisan approach encourages innovation and experimentation in the design process; and, if a mock-up can be made, the piece very likely can be built!

Using his hands and one his shoes, Jim showed how to design a nice step stool for a client. The design turned out pretty nice!

I am not quite ready to throw away my tape measure, rules, squares, and the FMT, D4 dovetail jig, the table saw or the jointer, band saw, etc. But in the future, and for some of the “special” pieces, I will try to apply some of what I learned in Jim Tolpin’s approach to using hand tools. Who knows, maybe I will become an artist in wood; he mentioned during this presentation that wood artists make the most money in the woodworking world. That is food for thought.

Acknowledgment: I received Camtasia Studio version 6, by TechSmith. I produced the final video of Jim Tolpin’s presentation using this program, for it allows terrific control of zooming (SmartFocus) in and out on the presentation slides. However, I noticed voice sync problems. Troubleshooting revealed the problem developed when I edited the video using an ancient video editor; it was not a problem related to the new Camtasia. If time permits, I will work on fixing the audio sync issue.

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Filed Under: Blog, Conference, St Charles, Video, Woodworking in America Tagged With: Conference, Design, Jim Tolpin, no measure, St Charles, Video, Woodworking in America