I've heard about the golden mean and fair curves and I can turn a bowl
with a reasonable approach to them. I can proceed thru twenty six grits
of sand-
paper, then buff from tripoli to carnauba by way of white diamond. I've
got wax and oil, lacquer and varnish, detergent and shoe polish. I can
draw overlapping leaves on my turnings and dremel them to a
fare-the-well. Then why are Andi's bowls basking in the Del Mano while
it's iffy if mine will grace the booth between the 4-H pigs and the
Future Farmer's goats at the Martin County Fair? It appears that the
only thing holding me back from greatness must be color, so I surfed the
net to learn all about Andi's colors of Fall, as well as the rest of the
year. I'm still barred from the Del Mano, but like any lout with a tiny
bit of shallow knowledge, I am compelled to force it on a long suffering
rcw.
So if all artists, photographers, physicists and anyone else who knows
anything at all about color will please leave, I'll try to write a
little primer & expose' for the rest of us. Like it or not, colored
turnings are here, so we better get with the program.
***********************************************
Color has to do with the wavelength and frequency of light. The colors
of a bowl will be perceived according to which
wave lengths the bowl absorbs; ie. you don't see the colors of the
absorbed waves.The visible wavelengths (colors) make up a spectrum
ranging from red to violet (Roy G. Biv) and can be thought of as a clock
face with red at 12, yellow at 4, and blue at 8. These are the pure or
primary colors, and all the rest are mixtures of them. The so-called
secondary colors are mixes of primaries. They are orange (red & yellow)
at 2, green (yellow & blue) at 6, and violet (blue & red) at 10. The
tertiary colors are mixes of a primary and a secondary color and are
named for the mix: red-orange at 1, yellow-orange at 3, yellow-green at
5, green-blue at 7, blue violet at 9 and red-violet at 11. Then there's
white, made up of all colors and black with none. That's all you need to
know about colors, so you should soon be in the Del Mano. But wait!
there's more. If you order today, you also get shades (a color + black),
tints (a color + white) and intensity (dull or bright). A bright color
contains relatively little gray, while dull colors contain relatively
more gray, compared to its pure component. We will also include hues and
tones if you order now. A hue is the resultant color that you see,
whether pure or a mix. Only women know the names for tones; names such
as watermelon, lemonade, etc. Tone depends upon what is mixed with a
pure color. A pure color (R,Y,G) has no tone. Everything else has some
tone depending on what's mixed up with the pure. (Sociologists and
Anthropologists should have left also.) Anyway, this important
knowledge about color that I am braying 'ex cathedra' should certainly
make you a great wood artist. _Except that I forgot to mention that
the colors those miserable critics appreciate vary with the spaces and
colors surrounding our masterpieces. Also different kinds of sunlight,
light bulbs and retinas of the beholders change viewer's perceptions .
We can't win, so let's hear it for pure unadulterated wood grain and
pretend not to care about color. That is, if anybody's still awake.
Arch

Fortiter,

Check out the textbooks used by foundations programs (freshman and
sophomore) in art and design schools. Look for names like Munsel and Faber.


"Arch" wrote in message
...
I've heard about the golden mean and fair curves and I can turn a bowl
with a reasonable approach to them. I can proceed thru twenty six grits
of sand-
paper, then buff from tripoli to carnauba by way of white diamond. I've
got wax and oil, lacquer and varnish, detergent and shoe polish. I can
draw overlapping leaves on my turnings and dremel them to a
fare-the-well. Then why are Andi's bowls basking in the Del Mano while
it's iffy if mine will grace the booth between the 4-H pigs and the
Future Farmer's goats at the Martin County Fair? It appears that the
only thing holding me back from greatness must be color, so I surfed the
net to learn all about Andi's colors of Fall, as well as the rest of the
year. I'm still barred from the Del Mano, but like any lout with a tiny
bit of shallow knowledge, I am compelled to force it on a long suffering
rcw.
So if all artists, photographers, physicists and anyone else who knows
anything at all about color will please leave, I'll try to write a
little primer & expose' for the rest of us. Like it or not, colored
turnings are here, so we better get with the program.
***********************************************
Color has to do with the wavelength and frequency of light. The colors
of a bowl will be perceived according to which
wave lengths the bowl absorbs; ie. you don't see the colors of the
absorbed waves.The visible wavelengths (colors) make up a spectrum
ranging from red to violet (Roy G. Biv) and can be thought of as a clock
face with red at 12, yellow at 4, and blue at 8. These are the pure or
primary colors, and all the rest are mixtures of them. The so-called
secondary colors are mixes of primaries. They are orange (red & yellow)
at 2, green (yellow & blue) at 6, and violet (blue & red) at 10. The
tertiary colors are mixes of a primary and a secondary color and are
named for the mix: red-orange at 1, yellow-orange at 3, yellow-green at
5, green-blue at 7, blue violet at 9 and red-violet at 11. Then there's
white, made up of all colors and black with none. That's all you need to
know about colors, so you should soon be in the Del Mano. But wait!
there's more. If you order today, you also get shades (a color + black),
tints (a color + white) and intensity (dull or bright). A bright color
contains relatively little gray, while dull colors contain relatively
more gray, compared to its pure component. We will also include hues and
tones if you order now. A hue is the resultant color that you see,
whether pure or a mix. Only women know the names for tones; names such
as watermelon, lemonade, etc. Tone depends upon what is mixed with a
pure color. A pure color (R,Y,G) has no tone. Everything else has some
tone depending on what's mixed up with the pure. (Sociologists and
Anthropologists should have left also.) Anyway, this important
knowledge about color that I am braying 'ex cathedra' should certainly
make you a great wood artist. _Except that I forgot to mention that
the colors those miserable critics appreciate vary with the spaces and
colors surrounding our masterpieces. Also different kinds of sunlight,
light bulbs and retinas of the beholders change viewer's perceptions .
We can't win, so let's hear it for pure unadulterated wood grain and
pretend not to care about color. That is, if anybody's still awake.
Arch

Fortiter,

I tried to post a light-hearted elementary primer about color as I have
tried to do previously about three phase electric power, cutting angles,
musings of a COC etc. Too often what I think and what I write are not
the same. Andi is gracious and forgiving, but I want to make it clear
that I admire her talent for beautiful art even more than her expert
turning ability. That goes for all the many others of you who make
lovely colored wood art. Arch

Fortiter,

Hello Arch,

I took it in the intended spirit, I am a sinner in the use of texturing and
coloring. My shame will be everlasting. I am sure that I have committed a
mortal sin by covering up something that God has created. But.... I think
that God had a hand in most of the dyes that I use too.

No Rules for me, but I am naturally unruly by choice.

Please keep posting Arch,
Yours are some of my favorites!!!!

Dave

David Peebles
Lyons, Ohio
Revolutions Woodturning
www.bowlturner.com

"Arch" wrote in message
...
I tried to post a light-hearted elementary primer about color as I have
tried to do previously about three phase electric power, cutting angles,
musings of a COC etc. Too often what I think and what I write are not
the same. Andi is gracious and forgiving, but I want to make it clear
that I admire her talent for beautiful art even more than her expert
turning ability. That goes for all the many others of you who make
lovely colored wood art. Arch

Fortiter,

Hey, Arch -

I didn't take offense to your primer. I do think it's interesting to
see how color is being used now in woodturning. When used
effectively, coloring the wood can highlight a beautiful grain rather
than detract from it. For example, figured maple is an excellent wood
that takes color well, and color can showcase some of the subtle grain
patterns that might otherwise be missed in the natural wood.

As with any surface enhancement technique in woodturning, the use of
color needs to be part of the entire composition of a piece. If a
woodturning is ugly prior to the application of color, it will still
be ugly after the color is added (and maybe more obviously so).

Understanding how colors work together or against each other is an
important tool, also. There are many different resource books in the
art section of every bookstore or library that spell out what color
combinations work well together. Observers of nature may have already
internalized this information, but others may need a little help. For
those of you that would prefer to not waste your time reading about
color theory, take a close look at plants, insects, reptiles, geology,
etc. What pleases your eye from nature will work well in wood art.

And, Arch - I'm glad to know you admire my woodturnings . . .

Andi
http://www.AndiWolfe.com

(Arch) wrote in message ...
I tried to post a light-hearted elementary primer about color as I have
tried to do previously about three phase electric power, cutting angles,
musings of a COC etc. Too often what I think and what I write are not
the same. Andi is gracious and forgiving, but I want to make it clear
that I admire her talent for beautiful art even more than her expert
turning ability. That goes for all the many others of you who make
lovely colored wood art. Arch

Fortiter,

Arch wrote: "I tried to post a light-hearted elementary primer about
color as I have tried to do previously about three phase electric power,
cutting angles, musings of a COC etc." .....snip......
******************************
And you did exactly that, Arch. No matter how something is written,
everyone reads the words as their own mind "hears" them. I thought you
did just fine and nothing indicated to me that you were being critical;
just your usual 'musing self! : )

To Ray I'd like to just say that it's a "fad". Just like in all the
arts (clothing, home products, etc), the collectors, gallery owners and
general public keep looking for "something new". I love most of the
dyed, burned and/or carved work; some is over done for my taste. I
like the work where you can see the grain and still know it's wood; some
make me ask "why waste the wood, take a piece of pottery and paint it"!

There is a great many people who want to buy pure wood (no enhancements)
and equal number of people who want "something new". I think gallerys
have to keep offering new or their clientele will go somewhere else
searching for the new piece.

The paint-it trend doesn't seem to affect the interest in fine pieces
that are pure wood; they still make all of us go "oohh"!
Check out Wally Dickerman's work for example; absolutely beautiful and
not a drop of paint!

Well, back to the shop to turn some naked bowls! : )

Ruth

Woodturners Logo
My shop and Turnings at
http://www.torne-lignum.com

Many thanks to all of you for your cordial understanding (standing?) of
this COC.
Humor, or what stands for it, is often a refuge for the mediocre. but of
course, not me.
In summary then: ornamentation of turned wood is a non-issue. Bad is
bad, Good is good. Arch

Fortiter,

Truer words were never spoken Arch! Excellent treatise on color theory to
boot!

Dan
(Eccentric by Nature)

"Arch" wrote in message
...
snip
We can't win, so let's hear it for pure unadulterated wood grain and
pretend not to care about color. That is, if anybody's still awake.
Arch

Fortiter,

Thank you Dan. I guess that we have now come full circle around this
color wheel, and it sure presented a variety of shades, tints and bold
colors. My attitude toward the thread has also made a sort of circle.
I think I can now put it safely to rest.

As the thread unravelled, at first I was chagrined, then I was confused,
then embarrassed, then irked, then guilty and apprehensive. I reread
the entire thread and began musing (my excuse for wool gathering) about
what it says for our NG.

RCW is a healthy NG. In a small way like war, good things spin off from
bad threads. Embedded in the thread were many cogent comments. They are
important, but I believe that two characteristics that insure the
survival of RCW were displayed: a genuine and selfless interest in _all
facets of woodturning and the innate courtesy of our members. "Manners
Maketh Man" sure applies to this group, and as with family squabbles our
differences seem to make us stronger at the end of almost every COLORFUL
thread. I'm no Pollyanna, but somehow I'm not worried about having to
find a better woodturning group. Thanks for not laughing at my primer,
and thanks for each of your posts. Arch

(Aside to my COC chief. You can't tear my stripes off. You weren't very
crotchety either.)

Fortiter,

Arch wrote:

(Aside to my COC chief. You can't tear my stripes off. You weren't very
crotchety either.)

Hmmm. Probably due to the two cohos (salmon) I caught. Went out the other day,
wind howlin' like a banshee, rain falling horizontally. Tossed some slightly
spalted herring out and just had an all around blast. Nice and snug in my
raingear and just happy as a clam. Hard to stay crotchety in weather like that
when the fish are biting. Did lose on.

Oh, and just to keep things on topic, I carefully watched the waves in case a
wayward cocobolo log happened to float up from Souch America. One didn't, but I
was looking.

Fishing & turning in God's country...

....Kevin
--
Kevin & Theresa Miller
Juneau, Alaska
http://www.alaska.net/~atftb

Kevin, not understanding the situation,
wrote, "...in case a wayward cocobolo log happened to float up....."
**********************************************
Chief, you were on topic, but naive in your hopes. Those guys on the
coasts of
Caleefornia, Washington and B.C. would never let a log of any species
float by. A. ****************************************

Fortiter,