No, this isn’t about “What is the boundary between Art and Craft?”.
It's more about
Turning - The Fuzzy Edges Form Of Woodworking.

I’m playing with multi-axis turning, doing both circular cross section
as well as intersecting arcs stuff - specifically simple stylized
standing human forms. You’ve probably seen them - the legs and hips
turned on one axis, the waste, torso, neck and head turned on another.
When viewed in profile the results are recognizable as a standing human
form. Viewed from the front or rear things get less recognizable -
humans not being symetrical about just one or two axis (axisese, or is
it axi?).

So I added an additional axis, allowing the stomach and the front of the
chest to be flattened a bit. Then I added two more axis, their centers
being 90s to the three. Ib line, axis already turned. The latter let me
flatten the sides of the thighs, hips and derriere to get more of a
trapezoidal cross section rather than a circular or oval cross section.
Another axis and just the face side of the head was changed, making it
less rounded.

That’s when it occured to me - “Hey, this isn’t turning anymore - it’s
carving.”. Then I thought of the works of Bin Pho, Malcom Tibbet,
Escoulen, Sfirri, Hunter - carvers/sculptors - some also painters - the
lathe and turning being only one of many tools and techniques used to
create their pieces - the wood often merely one of the mediums in their
works.

And that raised the question - when does a piece go from a turning to a
piece of sculpture? If you aren’t cutting all the way around the piece,
are you still “turning” - or are you carving?

Of all the forms of woodworking, “Turning” seems to have the least
defined boundaries. Turning - The Fuzzy Edges Form Of Woodworking.

charlie b

and here's the evolution of my Nude Dudes idea - so far.
http://web.hypersurf.com/~charlie2/T...umanForm1.html

Does anything at all rest on this question?



A lot of energy gets devoted to this sort of thing in the
craft/art/design world, and it seems to me the only useful
vrsion of it is if it's important to separate turning from sculpture,
like if you for some reason need to store one in a room separate from another.
Which doesn't happen very often. Classification systems originate,
usually, as ways of organizing things (books in libraries, faculty
at a university, footgear in a store).

there is some objective, factual basis for classifiying natural
kinds of things into rigid categories (bananas are genetically different,
in defined ways, from slugs). But for all human-made things,
you run into the problem all the time that there jsut aren't rigid, crisp
boundaries between groups of things. Think about prosaic words,
like "furniture". Is a lamp a piece of furniture? Is an electric fan?
What about a shelf on a wall? There is no right answer to these
questions -- they just show how vague words are when you try to press the point.


-- Andy Barss

Andrew has the right idea here it seems to me. I like languages and one of
the things a Hebrew professor and student of the Old Testament once said
was, "words are not points they are circles. Meaning can change over time."
Think of all the times you heard Shakespeare and had to translate English
into English. The sculptur who uses a lathe to make pieces to connect as
sculpture will call it sculpture while the turner would call the same thing
turning. Seems to me that both are right and I would rather be at the lathe
just making "stuff."

--
God bless and safe turning
Darrell Feltmate
Truro, NS Canada
http://aroundthewoods.com
http://roundopinions.blogspot.com
"Andrew Barss" wrote in message
...
Does anything at all rest on this question?



A lot of energy gets devoted to this sort of thing in the
craft/art/design world, and it seems to me the only useful
vrsion of it is if it's important to separate turning from sculpture,
like if you for some reason need to store one in a room separate from
another.
Which doesn't happen very often. Classification systems originate,
usually, as ways of organizing things (books in libraries, faculty
at a university, footgear in a store).

there is some objective, factual basis for classifiying natural
kinds of things into rigid categories (bananas are genetically different,
in defined ways, from slugs). But for all human-made things,
you run into the problem all the time that there jsut aren't rigid, crisp
boundaries between groups of things. Think about prosaic words,
like "furniture". Is a lamp a piece of furniture? Is an electric fan?
What about a shelf on a wall? There is no right answer to these
questions -- they just show how vague words are when you try to press the
point.


-- Andy Barss

Andrew Barss wrote:

Does anything at all rest on this question?

Maybe mental / psychological barriers to get
over/under/around/beyond?
We often limit ourselves with self imposed or imposed by others
boundaries.

The realization that most "boundaries" aren't?

Take the "I can't carve or sculpt - but I CAN turn some interesting"
things.
Maybe if you sneak up to, and then slightly passed. the I Can Turn
But Not
Carve/Sculpt interface, whole no creative avenues may present
themselves.

That may make "turning" a somewhat unique woodworking gateway
to all sorts of other types of woodworking, and creative/artistic
expression, be it in wood or some other medium, or mix of mediums.

A lot of energy gets devoted to this sort of thing in the
craft/art/design world, and it seems to me the only useful
vrsion of it is if it's important to separate turning from sculpture,
like if you for some reason need to store one in a room separate
from another. Which doesn't happen very often. Classification
systems originate, usually, as ways of organizing things (books
in libraries, faculty at a university, footgear in a store).

Well it did make a whole hell of a lot of difference when I was
doing "craft shows" and "art shows". The "fine arts" shows
were better publicized, scheduled to coincide with a special
event and promoted much more than the "arts and crafts" shows
which often took place the previous weekend, acting as a means
to inform and attract people to the following weekend's Fine
Arts show.

And the promoter(s) of the Fine Arts shows often took a smaller
percentage of the sales than taken for the Arts & Crafts shows.
The shows were marketed to very different audiences - one having
beer, sodas and hot dogs and hamburgers, the other cheeses, wines
and french sounding bottled water(s).

I made jewelry and small sculpture - in silver and gold, the jewelry
using topaz, aquamarine, amathyst, emeralds and diamonds. In
an "arts & crafts" show, my works were at the high end of the
audiences's price range - or beyond their price range. In the
"fine arts" show, I was in the lower to mid price range. Sales
and subsequent commissioned work was significantly different
depending on how my work was categorized.

there is some objective, factual basis for classifiying natural
kinds of things into rigid categories (bananas are genetically different,
in defined ways, from slugs). But for all human-made things,
you run into the problem all the time that there jsut aren't rigid, crisp
boundaries between groups of things. Think about prosaic words,
like "furniture". Is a lamp a piece of furniture? Is an electric fan?
What about a shelf on a wall? There is no right answer to these
questions -- they just show how vague words are when you try to
press the point.

-- Andy Barss

This could get into Zen - everything is everything - each merely
a different manifestation of the One Thing

charlie b