Wednesday, April 03, 2019

silver maple

The photo shows the large silver maple table top being lifted for loading into Bill Hinson's truck. Bill and his daughter Suzanne went with me on an adventure to 2nd life woods to pick it up and it's now in my shop ready for work. I've left it long to be trimmed to final size after I've made decisions about how the irregular shape will be best fit my customer's seating needs. You will see more of this table top in the coming months. It is heavy enough that I can barely lift one end.

There is an important balance to be found in the making of useful and beautiful things. If an object is not beautiful and well-crafted, meeting one's aesthetic considerations in how it looks and feels, it will likely not be treated with care or respect and will not survive. If an object is not useful, we may not find ways to adopt it into our lives. And then there is this:
"Things men have made with wakened hands, and put soft life into are awake through years with transferred touch, and go on glowing for long years.
And for this reason, some old things are lovely warm still with the life of forgotten men who made them." -- D.H. Lawrence
The question then, is  "What are wakened hands, and how do we wake them up?"

Make, fix and create...

1 comment:

  1. Wakening hands is easy in my view: give kids materials, tools and time and let them make things. They will glow with creativity, exhibit little feats of persistence and problem solving and shine with pride to display their masterpieces!

    This begins the virtuous cycle of making. The culmination of which is what Rousseau discovered: "Put a young man in a workshop, his hands will work to the benefit of his brain and he will become a philosopher while thinking himself only a craftsman.”

    You taught me that Doug! Thanks!

    Kim

    ReplyDelete