About Craft

[Trevor Walsh]

I've written before, and my blog features heavily about my feelings towards craft, particularly the self sufficiency and sense of accomplishment one gets from turning away from the ubiquitous mass-made in favor of making or sourcing crafted furniture, clothes, food etc. I found this article by Robin Wood, a UK pole lather turner and Chair of the Heritage Crafts Association particularly awesome. It's a lengthy read, but worth it I think.

[William Hovis]

Very much worth reading - thanks for sharing that.

[Sean Hughto]

Thanks for pointing out the link. While Robin Wood is perhaps a little more hard core than me, I really share a lot of his sesibilities. As a turner, I've found bowls are what i like to turn best, and I have absolutely no interest in turning non-functional art objects. Nothing against those who do, I'm just asying I can relate to Robin's comments.

[Trevor Walsh]

I agree Sean, though my new appartment will have a bedroom converted to a crafts room (Neandering for me and beading/sewing for my girlfriend) and I'm terribly excited to have hardwood floors, be above ground and have a window. What I found interesting about Robin's lifestyle is that it's holistic, he grows his food and altered his consumption to lead a happy life on 20,000 Pounds a year. I'm sure he works more hours than the average 40 (though I'll bet many Americans work 50-60), it's just not all for pay.

That littler red one in the left foreground is really nice, I like the beaded rim and the grain in it. That little spoon it awesome too, I can guess how you did the turning, but what about the bowl? Handcarved or turned sideways?

[Sean Hughto]

That's a scoop. Completely turned and then using a saw to remove part of the bell. This is Raffan style - from his book called something like Turning Projects:



I have made carved spoons though, and really enjoy it:


The red bowl is Lychee. A really nice wood, if you ever come across some.

[Chris Griggs]

What I found interesting about Robin's lifestyle is that it's holistic, he grows his food and altered his consumption to lead a happy life on 20,000 Pounds a year. I'm sure he works more hours than the average 40 (though I'll bet many Americans work 50-60), it's just not all for pay.

Thanks for sharing. My fiance are hoping to begin living closer to that lifestyle when we return to your neck of the woods (Philly area) in about 9 months. We were originally planning on returning to be in/near central Philly (where we met), but now we are considering, Bucks County and the Lehigh Valley so we can work towards living a "slower" lifestyle. Still need to find jobs up there though since we aren't ready to completely go the no day job route, so that may ultimately end up dictating where in PA/NJ we will be next year.

Anyway, good article. What I love the most about woodworking is that fact that I get to create things that are both beautiful and functional. Thanks for sharing!

[Gil Knowles]

Trevor
Thank you very much for posting that link.
I read the article and found it fantastic. So much of what people whom worked in crafts is being forgotten. His words and work are very inspiring.
I am in awe of people like Robin with his skills and passion. I had a look at his gallery and the work wow and his prices I thought were low. I have book marked the site and will continue to read his other posts.
Sean
You do wonderful work. I share your belief concerning functional works. When I make something from wood I like to see it being used.
We need more people keeping the old crafts alive.
I know I have not expressed myself well. I am just in awe of the many people on this forum as well as others whom are keeping these skills alive.
Again Thanks.
Gil

[Chris Fournier]

I'll play the Devil's advocate here. First off, $20000 GBP is $34000 USD so don't get too folksy just yet.

Do you really think that self sufficiency and doin' it yourself is a great gig? Well it is if you have time and money on your hands! The car in your avatar affords you a lot of priviledge and you have had nothing to do with that. Now think about how much time you'd have on your hands to make furniture, clothing and sausages if you had to develop your own energy/fuel sources to feed your modern home and transportation needs; eating three times a day is another activity to ponder as you hew wood and draw water...

We get all misty about handtools because they are a singular activity in our modern lives that connects us to the handicrafts. Our work with handtools is like dessert. It is a treat only because modern life affords us the time to pursue this activity.

I have worked on a farm with no electricity and I can assure that once the field work and livestock are tended to and you are fed, woodworking with handtools would be a purely academic discussion - you are in a coma by the time the sun sets.

I made a pole lathe by the way and it was fun, just not fun enough to sell my General 260...

[Trevor Walsh]

Chris Griggs, wonderful! Philly is a good town, though I much prefer the Roxborough/East Falls area, some nice little half timber framed homes there, around where my new place is (though sadly not half timber-framed). Lehigh Valley is really awesome, two of my best friends are from that area. They have some cool little towns Emmaus comes to mind. With good antiquing. Jake's flea market is still a good spot for old tools. I got a rather nice #7 (Jointer plane, Jeff) for $55 there two summers ago. Good luck with the hunt, and keep in touch if you wind up in the area.

I bicycle to work about half the time and the new apartment I'm moving to is even closer to where I work. I eat two meals a day which ties into a whole mess of fundamental problems I see with the "food" most of America is familiar with. I'm not saying I want to shirk all modern conveniences, but I like having a vegetable garden, want egg chickens and to build all my furniture. Someday I hope to be good enough that people will want me to teach them how to build furniture. I have the time to do these things, and rather than spend money on things like TV and FiOS, I woodwork and grow food, yea I have a computer, but that's issued from work.

More what I don't understand is a 1 or more hour commute in an SUV to a far away place to work 50 or so hours a week to pay for a huge house that a three or four person family lives in. Where the kids watch TV or play Xbox or whatever new thing the industry has stuck on the Walmart shelf. I think the constant growth consumerism is the issue, I think by nature of craft work, one becomes more sensitive to this and tries to modify life to deal with that sensitivity. On the issue of time, in the PFW class tonight we were cutting in rule joint hinges for a pembroke table, I did mine with a router plane and chisel, the bench neighbor next to me used a trim router and chisel. Who won? It was basically a tie depending on how fussy you went about the chisel clean up. However one method used a "reused" tool, the other a new manufactured product with perhaps a decade long service life that uses consumable resources and didn't save you anything. (Caused a lot of dust to boot.) That said he broke down and started using the eggbeater drill I whipped up with the self centering drill for the hinge screws, and I fudged and grabbed a screw gun to sink the last few screws rather than using the mk1 forearm, so there you go.

Anywho, I hope not to have gotten blathery, I only intended to post the article to the choir.

[Chris Fournier]

I sing in your choir quite often, I just don't sing all the songs all the time!

[Gil Knowles]

Chris
I do not know if you have every been to England and spent time there. I have, was married there, $34,000. is not a big wage. I used to figure what cost 1 $ in Canada was a Pound (do not have a pound sign) in England. That said I have worked on a farm abeit many years ago and yes they were long hours. I stooked hay and walked behind a binder stooking grain and worked thrashing grain. I worked with people that were amazing today what they did in a day. A neighbouring farmer was very mechanically inclined. He could not afford a swather, but he had seen one and thought it was a good idea, so he made one out of used car parts. It did not look pretty but it worked. He is an amazing man with anything mechanical. He is up there in age and still alive, his son is carrying on the tradition. I am getting up in age but can still appreciate what went before me. We have lost something.
Gil

[Chris Fournier]

Chris
I do not know if you have every been to England and spent time there. I have, was married there, $34,000. is not a big wage. I used to figure what cost 1 $ in Canada was a Pound (do not have a pound sign) in England. That said I have worked on a farm abeit many years ago and yes they were long hours. I stooked hay and walked behind a binder stooking grain and worked thrashing grain. I worked with people that were amazing today what they did in a day. A neighbouring farmer was very mechanically inclined. He could not afford a swather, but he had seen one and thought it was a good idea, so he made one out of used car parts. It did not look pretty but it worked. He is an amazing man with anything mechanical. He is up there in age and still alive, his son is carrying on the tradition. I am getting up in age but can still appreciate what went before me. We have lost something.
Gil

Gil, I have spent time in Blighty and yes I was surprised by the cost of living. Filling up the compact rental car with gas made me grateful for my corporate business card. This being said my point was that exchange rates being what they are $20Gs GBP is alot more than $20Gs USD.

Ingenuity is very admirable indeed but folks that cobble together equipment on a shoestring budget with salvaged components rarely have time to do fine woodworking making their own furniture much less rhapsodize about it.

In this modern age, the art of "slow living" is not really a viable alternative lifestyle for that many people. Herded into cities we are now mostly all cogs/chips in the new and improved machine/computer. I agree that we have lost something, I'm not sure that the ingenoius subsistance farmer would necessarily think so however.

[Gil Knowles]

Chris
I apologise. I realize that we can not go back in time. I know many people would not want to go there.
That being said if people would slow down a bit, it would not be bad thing.
"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"
Gil

[Chris Griggs]

Trevor, I will definitely get in touch when the move happens, and or comes closer. We've considered the East Falls also. My fiancee and I both spent two years in Philly teaching in the public schools, and she grew up in Bucks County so we are both (her much more so than I) pretty familiar with Philly and beyond. There's a lot of nice areas (and a lot of great old tools) within 1-2 hours of Philly, that we have thought of, but ultimately jobs will be the deciding factor. We definitely want to live close to where ever we work, as I too bike to work most days and would like to continue being able to do so, so that we can get by on one car.

Chris F, I appreciate your reality check, and mostly agree with you. Your right, there are a lot of people who "slow-living" is not a real option for. And you're even more right that if I I had to wood work by hand to live, you can be darn sure that it very quickly would loose it's status as a fun hobby - there certainly wouldn't be room for my fancy LN/LV tools in that equation.

That said I think all the things Trevor mentioned (biking to work, producing some of ones own food, making some income from woodworking) are viable, and what I like about people like Mr. Wood is that they make me ask myself.... 1) Could/should/would I be happier if I learned to live with less? 2) Could/should I learn to do more for myself?

Anyway, this whole thread has turned to blathery (sorry Trevor), and in posting I've just moved it back up to the top.... Doh!!!

EDIT: And oh yeah. SWEET, bowls and scoops Sean! I must learn to turn someday...

[george wilson]

I,too,had to lead a pioneering life in Alaska for 3 years. We had no electricity or running water for the time we were living in a tarpaper shack in he woods and building our very small house. I had to get up at 5:00 A.M.,go carry 15 gallons of oil up the hill,get water from the stream,and walk 4 miles to school. When I got home,there were several chores that kept me busy until it was too dark to see with Coleman lanterns. When we finally hauled enough wood up the hill to build the house,and got electricity,it was time to dig a 4' deep trench all the way up to the house.4' deep so the pipes would be less likely to freeze. Then,we had to shovel and blast out a road so we could get closer to the house. Still 200 steps to get up to it even then,to carry groceries,etc.. The only rest I got was when I was at school. Then,during study hall,I could at least draw,and in shop began to try to build guitars.

When you lead a primitive life,that's the way it is. Not a lot of energy left to be creative. We needed more kids to help out,but I was the only one old enough to do all these things. That's why they had large families in the old days.