Need a break from the normal single axis symetry of your usual pieces?

Occassionally get bored with turning circles? Sure, you're turning
profiles with nice "fair curves", interesting profiles and perfect
proportions - but every cross section is - ROUND.

Round & Brown - plates, bowls, hollow forms, spindles, finials - those
are all fun to turn. But after a while . . . just ROUND ain't enough.

Wings are interesting - challenging - and a bit dangerous - especially
the way Jimy Clewes turns them - at 3,800 rpms. But even winged pieces
are still turned on just ONE axis - a single axis of symetry.

You've probably seen Escoulen's Multi-Axis turnings - and wondered
HOW IN THE HELL CAN HE DO THAT!?

Maybe you've tried multi-axis turning - but your results seem to be so
unpredictable. Multi-axis turning seems so chaotic - I Wanted THIS -
but - I Got THAT. Trying to work out multi-axis CAUSE & EFFECT can give
you a headache?

So you abandoned playing with multi-axis turning - too complicated - too
confusing - too unpredictable - too CHAOTIC.

OK - so maybe I'm the ONLY one who had that experience ; )

Well - someone has FINALLY started bringing ORDER OUT OF MULTI-AXIS
CHAOS - and has put together a Systematic Method of connecting CAUSE
with EFFECT - that's understandable. Mre importantly - YOU can APPLY it
- and start GETTING the results you WANT.

The person you want to thank for bringing order to the apparent chaos of
multi-ais turning is - Barbara Dill. After first seeing multi-axis
turning being done back in 1993, she recently (over the last three or
four years) began developing a systematic method of thinking about
multi-axis Cause & Effect - a mental model of how multi-axis turning
works - what does what, how and why.

Here's the link to her website. Check out her Gallery: Multi-Axis Work
- and then download and go through her Multi-Axis Paper.

http://barbaradill.com/

When you've gone through her Paper a couple of times - THE CLOUDS WILL
PART, THE SUN OF UNDERSTANDING WILL SHINE THROUGH, THE ANGELS WILL SING
- and you'll head off to your lathe to begin applying what you've
learned - to create YOUR OWN multi-axis pieces!

Yet another whole new turning world to explore - and exploit!

charlie b wrote:



Here's the link to her website. Check out her Gallery: Multi-Axis Work
- and then download and go through her Multi-Axis Paper.

http://barbaradill.com/


Great reference, highly informative and very clear. I'm unlikely to try most of the
possibilities mentioned, but even the basic ones look interesting.

Thanks

-Posted by Ozum (http://ozinsight.com/)
-All-in-one yEnc newsreader, scanner and freeware autoposter.

If you started now, and turned just the things you can do with coves,
beads and Vs - you'd probably still be doing a fraction of the
possibilities -without playing with TWISTING - by the end of the year!

Google's SketchUp is a FREE 3D program you can download and play with.
If you click on the illustatration on this page, you can download the
SketchUp file and look at it in SketchUp - from any perspective.

http://web.hypersurf.com/~charlie2/T...UpModels1.html

And here's my feeble attempt at trying to conceptualize Cause & Effect.

http://web.hypersurf.com/~charlie2/T...iCenters1.html

Multi axis turning is really fun to play with and explore. But be
aware, it's like
potato chips - you can't stop with just a few . . .

charlie b wrote:
Need a break from the normal single axis symetry of your usual pieces?

Occassionally get bored with turning circles? Sure, you're turning
profiles with nice "fair curves", interesting profiles and perfect
proportions - but every cross section is - ROUND.

Round& Brown - plates, bowls, hollow forms, spindles, finials - those
are all fun to turn. But after a while . . . just ROUND ain't enough.

Wings are interesting - challenging - and a bit dangerous - especially
the way Jimy Clewes turns them - at 3,800 rpms. But even winged pieces
are still turned on just ONE axis - a single axis of symetry.

You've probably seen Escoulen's Multi-Axis turnings - and wondered
HOW IN THE HELL CAN HE DO THAT!?

Maybe you've tried multi-axis turning - but your results seem to be so
unpredictable. Multi-axis turning seems so chaotic - I Wanted THIS -
but - I Got THAT. Trying to work out multi-axis CAUSE& EFFECT can give
you a headache?

So you abandoned playing with multi-axis turning - too complicated - too
confusing - too unpredictable - too CHAOTIC.

OK - so maybe I'm the ONLY one who had that experience ; )

Well - someone has FINALLY started bringing ORDER OUT OF MULTI-AXIS
CHAOS - and has put together a Systematic Method of connecting CAUSE
with EFFECT - that's understandable. Mre importantly - YOU can APPLY it
- and start GETTING the results you WANT.

The person you want to thank for bringing order to the apparent chaos of
multi-ais turning is - Barbara Dill. After first seeing multi-axis
turning being done back in 1993, she recently (over the last three or
four years) began developing a systematic method of thinking about
multi-axis Cause& Effect - a mental model of how multi-axis turning
works - what does what, how and why.

Here's the link to her website. Check out her Gallery: Multi-Axis Work
- and then download and go through her Multi-Axis Paper.

http://barbaradill.com/
snip

I particularly like her fluted pieces and her "studio", but the
multiaxial and split turning pieces appear awkward to me. Like a
three-legged horse. My mind craves grace and symmetry. Symptoms, no
doubt, of a simple mind.

--
Gerald Ross
Cochran, GA

I like life. It's something to do.
--Ronnie Shakes.

We are "hard wired" to initially be wary of the unfamiliar and acepting
of the
familiar. The unfamiliar makes us uncomfortable. We tend to stick with
what
we know - or think we know. Paradoxically, our species is also hard
wired to
be adaptive.

There is grace and symetry in Barbara's work - her four arcs tea set -
for example.
Cindy Drozda's "three sided" lidded boxes with beautiful proportions and
elegant
finials are another example. Gary Fisher's multi-axis plaques, for want
of a better
term, are yet another example.

Because we are not accustomed to seeing intersecting arcs rather than
the more
familiar single axis - full round cross sections - and the predictable
profile of
traditional lathe turned pieces - it's initially difficult to see the
symetry that is
- in fact -present in multi axis pieces.

But to see the grace and symetry one must see beyond round cross
sections - which
- by their nature - have the same profile as you walk around them or as
you rotate
them. By using intersecting arcs, only parts of circles - the profile
changes as the piece
is rotated. It can merely change proportions - looking taller and
narrower - then more
like the familiar Golden Ratio (or 1/3rd above, 2/3rds below or 2/5ths
above, 3/5ths
below a shoulder). And it introduces edges where arcs meet - something
that you don't
get to play with when limited to single axis turning turned to circular
cross sections.

Round and Brown has had hundreds of years to develop its aesthetics -
and based on
several thousand years of ceramic "thrown" pieces. Multi axis turning
is relatively
new - Francoise Escoulen being one of the ground breakers and first
internationally
recognized multi axis turner - came on the turning scene only about a
dozen years ago.

Like anything new in arts / crafts, multi axis turning "takes some
getting use to".
And "getting use to" multi axis turnings requires a bit of work -both on
the part of
the audience / viewer and the multi axis turner - mostly by the multi
axis turners.
And if the audience / viewer is a wood turner - who does single axis
turning - the
multi axis turner has to workeven harder to educate / cultivate single
axis turners.

By providing a structure for conceptual models of the basics of multi
axis turning
- something essential for the unfamiliar to become familiar - Barbara
Dill has provided
the basic tools / concepts to do that. And with that structure, she's
provided anyone
who wants to explore multi axis turning with a map - and compass - the
underlying
concepts and techniques to literally turn a concept into a reality.
Using those "tools",
people will come up with all sorts of new pieces - some good, some not
so good. But,
in time, and with more exposure, aesthetics for multi axis pieces will
develop and
become more familiar - and accepted - by not only turners, but also by
collectors,
galleries and museums.

Fortunately, the turning community is pretty open to new ideas and
techniques.
And that probably explains why turning is growing in leaps and bounds.

For an aesthetic to develop, a vocabulary for it is necessary in order
for artists / artisans to share concepts / ideas and techniques

For single axis wood turnings, the aesthetics - and vocabulary - were
already there - created by potters who “threw” pieces on a potter’s
wheel long before the advent of the lathe and wood turning tools. The
mediums and methods are different, but the resulting shapes and forms,
along with their proportions were basically the same.

For turning, we play with three fundamental components - beads, coves
and grooves ( concave or convex curves and intersecting straight lines)
- to create the profile of a single axis symetric piece - with round
cross sections.

The profile of a single axis piece turned to round cross sections is
predictable, Turn it about its axis - and the profile remains constant.
There’s no need to think about the profile we see - because we already
have a mental model of what single axis symetric things are - some idea
of how they’re created - and a set of mental criteria for what looks
good and what doesn’t. The look of the wood may change - but the
profile remains constant - no surprises - no “Wait a Minute. The
Profile Changed! HUH!?” - no conscious thinking is required to
interpret what we are seeing before deciding if we like a piece or
not.

There’s a vocabulary to describe single axis, round cross section,
thrown or turned shapes / forms (profile, shoulder, neck, foot, lift,
transitions, fair curves, balance, etc.) as well as a set of accepted
proportions - for plates, bowls and hollow forms. Spindle turning has
basically the same vocabulary though the “rules” for proportions are
less defined.

Multi axis and eccentric turning is just beginning to develop it’s own
vocabulary - and Barbara Dill’s Multi Axis Papers, DVD, demos,
presentations and multi axis turnings just may be the foundation for the
aesthetic that will develop for multi axis turned pieces.

www.tinyurl.com.3kavwbe

On Wed, 20 Jul 2011 16:55:07 -0500, charlie b wrote
(in message ):

If you started now, and turned just the things you can do with coves,
beads and Vs - you'd probably still be doing a fraction of the
possibilities -without playing with TWISTING - by the end of the year!

Google's SketchUp is a FREE 3D program you can download and play with.
If you click on the illustatration on this page, you can download the
SketchUp file and look at it in SketchUp - from any perspective.

http://web.hypersurf.com/~charlie2/T...terSketchUpMod
els1.html

And here's my feeble attempt at trying to conceptualize Cause & Effect.

http://web.hypersurf.com/~charlie2/T...iCenters1.html

Multi axis turning is really fun to play with and explore. But be
aware, it's like
potato chips - you can't stop with just a few . . .

Charlie, thanks for the info about Google Sketchup! I never considered that
such a swell piece of software was available - for free and includes the mac
platform.
This will be a great way to test out some shapes and ideas, and lots of other
non-woodturning projects, as well.

Anent multi-axis turnings, my own efforts in this form have been mainly
limited to replacement hammer handles and other fairly straightforward
projects. I do have some ambitious (or adventurous - for me) projects in mind
but will not be able to get to them for awhile, yet. They will require that I
first manufacture some specialized chucks for what I want to do.
tom koehler


--
I will find a way or make one.