On Tue, 11 Dec 2007 11:23:46 -0500, (Arch) wrote:

Painting a wooden bowl turned on a lathe and terming the effort 'Turning
Wood' is sort of like painting a sunset on a canvas and calling the
effort 'Weaving Cloth'.

more like turning stomachs?

A good turner who knows nothing about the craft is sort of like a good
driver who knows nothing about internal combustion engines. Do both need
to know engineering, physics, topology, golden entangles and Canuck
curves? "It ain't necessarily so."

You don't need to know how an engine works to drive, but I've always felt that
if you KNOW what's happening mechanically when you press the accelerator, gas &
clutch, you have a much better chance of becoming a better driver who limits
abuse of the machinery..

What vast turning knowledge? A turner's inspiration has more to do with
breathing in than with divine influence. A Chimp doesn't need to drink
deep from some Pierian Spring. He just needs to secure a balanced blank,
stay on his side of the toolrest, rub the bevel, lead the flute, lag the
scraper and reduce the speed when the lathe starts to shake. It's very
likely that the chimp will turn something that knowledgeable turners
will critique ad nauseum, while some layman is buying it.

Well, my half-vast knowledge tells me that there's a lot more to it than that,
and your work shows that you do to.. ;-]
Like anything else, the better educated and skilled you are at something, the
easier it seems.. and the harder it is to understand why everyone can't do as it
well..

Most successful businesses make things that the public either wants or
needs and can afford. Some woodturners seek success by turning things
that they themselves want and don't need on a lathe they can't afford.

Those are collectors, Arch, not sellers...
I used to be like that and hardly sold a thing... Then, I realized that if all I
made were things that I liked and wanted, I was cutting out most of my market..
Luckily, weird sells well, usually as art, so my stuff is popular.. *eg*

Just because a piece is useless doesn't make it fine art and calling it
art doesn't make it so. When an ignoramus reveals his ignorance by
making fun of a work of art, it diminishes him not the work.

Gotta disagree, Arch.. Utility stuff is for use and sells well but for little
profit..
"Art" has no real function except to be appreciated and is (hopefully)
priceless...
I people ask "what's it for", I know it's at least approaching art...
Am I an artist? Well, perception can become reality if you market hard
enough..lol

It's not timber, tools nor shop. _ITTS _ "It's The Turner Stupid".
It's the turner that does the turning, not the equipment.

Ahh.. but the lathe does the "turning"... We just visualize something and shape
it as the wood goes by, right?
If we weren't using a machine to spin the wood, we'd be carvers, not turners..

Did I get up on the wrong side of the bed this morning and have a cold
breakast? You think? Naw! I'm just a crotchety ole coot, a COC in
turner's clothing.

You wearing one of those turner's smock things, Arch???



mac

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