Blasphemy

[Brian Kent]

OK. I have a question that no one is probably allowed to ask.
I'm sorry.
Please forgive me.

Here goes:

What good is a hollow form? You can't put anything in it. If it is sitting on a shelf no one actually knows how thick the walls are. It would look the same if it was a solid piece of wood.

OK, go…

[curtis rosche]

Ive actually seen in a few resorts and hotels where they have hf looking peices, but they only have a hole from a forestner bit down the center.

[Ted Calver]

If it holds M&M's it's functional. If not, it's art.

[Roger Chandler]

Brian......I gave my mother a cherry HF with finial......and a large cherry bowl......both her and my dad were excited with the bowl......the hf was a couple months later.......she looked at it and said......that is pretty, but what is it for? I said.....it is art, mom.....you display it!

She uses the bowl regularly.....the hf is sitting on top of her hutch...."out of the way!"

[Ron Radliff]

Now you've gone and done it. You asked the question that is never to be asked.
Once the genie is out of the box, you can't put it back again.

[Richard Coers]

All things do not need a practical use. Art is about something that is just pleasing to look at and bring beauty to our lives. Wall thickness is about pride in workmanship.

[Scott Hackler]

Ok, I'll bite... Hollow forms are decorative art that in some fashion have evolved from functional jugs from antiquity. We decorate some with a finial as a lid and as the artistic stamp. A lot of turners do HFs and a lot of HFs look similar, some of us add our specific finial style to make it "ours". The thickness is usually done to impress other turners! Except for leaving it thick for carving or real thin for piercing.

[Rick Markham]

Pretty much by definition Art can serve no purpose other than to beautify or, depending on artist, "occupy" space (remember beauty is in the eye of the beholder,cough, maker.) So if it has a function is it really a hollow form?... That my friends IS the question... Functional items can be artfully made, they however, by the strictest definition aren't Art. Now this isn't how I feel on the subject, this is what they inundate you with when you are earning a fine arts degree. Obviously Art is all about stretching, bending and breaking all the rules you can. So maybe a better question is are all artist rule breakers?

[Sid Matheny]

It depends on who is looking at it!

Sid

[David DeCristoforo]

It's not a "hollow form" if it's not hollow. It's a "weed pot".

[Steve Schlumpf]

Brian - as one of those who turns hollow forms, I have had a few folks ask that question. You can try and offer an explanation that it is a piece of art... and you get a blank look. However, when I've told them that it serves the same purpose as a stature... then they understand... it is something for the birds to sit on!

[robert baccus]

All my woodturning buddies can feel the exact depth in a 12x12" HF to the nearest 1/000" in 2 seconds or less. Then the sound like a mother in law inspecting my shop. I feel a lot of the currently popular HF shapes evolved from Pueblo pots. Or maybe Hobby House????

[robert baccus]

A lady at a show once asked me if she could put tuns salad in my very nice bowl. I replied that for a large check she could deposit her salad and a few other things in my bowl. No sale but worth every penny.

[Chip Sutherland]

It's either an art piece or it is a vase for dried/plastic flowers. I also like refer to them as 'sold'. I can sell a HF for a higher price than bowls which are generally viewed as utilitarian in use which limits the price folks (women) will pay. It's counter-intuitive that the more useful is less valuable while the less useful is more valuable.

[Reed Gray]

I always thought hollow forms were dust collectors.... Not sure who said that one.

If it don't hold soup, it's art. Anthony Yak over on Woodnet forums.

I did make some weed post once upon a time, and labeled them as such when they were for sale. Oh, the comments this old hippy got......

robo hippy