Monday, June 22, 2009

revisiting old designs

I have started making end tables and hall tables for a commission based on an old design from my distant past(about 1980-82). It seems that we may have good ideas when we are young, or at least may feel more experimental, being less knowledgeable about potential failure. So the table shown in the photo above serves as my inspiration for new work based on earlier designs.

Today I am milling legs from walnut and cherry, and will dig into my stacks of wood for material for table tops and shelves.

I also finished compiling an application for a research grant that would enable me to spend more time investigating the concurrence of the manual training and arts and crafts movements. The following is from architect Will Price, 1904, attributing the rise of the arts and crafts movement to the ground made fertile by manual training:
“The manual training school has done much to make the Arts and Crafts movement possible. I have no statistics for this statement; you do not need statistics for such things--you simply know them; you cannot go on teaching and training these young people for twenty-five years that it is right to do things that are worth while and not have some of them adopt the teaching”.

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