My kitchen cabinets were damaged by the hurricane and I considered
ornamenting the new doors with split spindles. While thinking about
patterns, I got to musing about how ornamented turnings changed over the
years. Old stuff to furniture designers, architects, and interior
decorators who track changes in what is considered current good taste,
but it's interesting that I am considering ornamenting severely plain
doors that were once so up to date and popular.

The ornamentation pendulum swings and 'Victorian excess' gradually
morphed into 'less is more' by way of 'craft movement' and 'art
nouveau'. Holtzapffel's ornate turnings were supplanted by Osolnik's
simple inverted cones. Along the way our high school shop table lamps
were festooned with turned beads and coves. They are tacky now, but Mom
was so proud of them then. Chair rail, crown mould, and interior columns
are the 'in thing' for macmansions again; so are the high baseboards,
tin ceilings and door frame rosettes in my Maine cottage.

Unadorned bowls like Stocksdale's were on the leading edge and are now
timeless, but change is permanent. Ornamentation is again de rigueur
with paint, fenestration and carving being the guidons instead of beads,
coves and astragals of yesteryear.

Don't fight it Arch, get with the program! I'm gonna really gussey up
my kitchen cabinet doors. That is, if Lorraine will let me.


Turn to Safety, Arch
Fortiter



http://community.webtv.net/almcc/MacsMusings

Arch,

I think beads and coves on a spindle are one thing, but bowl and
vessel forms are different and require a different aesthetic.

Spindles are often part of a larger creation: table legs, lamp bases,
etc. and, therefore, you need to make the spindle coexist with its
mating parts.

Bowls and vessels, have a simple form that lend themselves to becoming
a pallet for other artistic expressions like painting, carving,
burning, piercing.

Joe Fleming - San Diego
================================================== ====

(Arch) wrote in message ...
My kitchen cabinets were damaged by the hurricane and I considered
ornamenting the new doors with split spindles. While thinking about
patterns, I got to musing about how ornamented turnings changed over the
years. Old stuff to furniture designers, architects, and interior
decorators who track changes in what is considered current good taste,
but it's interesting that I am considering ornamenting severely plain
doors that were once so up to date and popular.

The ornamentation pendulum swings and 'Victorian excess' gradually
morphed into 'less is more' by way of 'craft movement' and 'art
nouveau'. Holtzapffel's ornate turnings were supplanted by Osolnik's
simple inverted cones. Along the way our high school shop table lamps
were festooned with turned beads and coves. They are tacky now, but Mom
was so proud of them then. Chair rail, crown mould, and interior columns
are the 'in thing' for macmansions again; so are the high baseboards,
tin ceilings and door frame rosettes in my Maine cottage.

Unadorned bowls like Stocksdale's were on the leading edge and are now
timeless, but change is permanent. Ornamentation is again de rigueur
with paint, fenestration and carving being the guidons instead of beads,
coves and astragals of yesteryear.

Don't fight it Arch, get with the program! I'm gonna really gussey up
my kitchen cabinet doors. That is, if Lorraine will let me.


Turn to Safety, Arch
Fortiter



http://community.webtv.net/almcc/MacsMusings

Arch

I have trouble making beads as rounded and bull-nosed as they should be and
coves that are graceful and nicely curved - oh - I usually arrive at or
close the the shape I want, but it is often after much head scratching and
slow movements. I think the key to making any shape well is based upon two
things - fear and patience.

First you have to overcome the fear of breaking the piece of wood, then
second you need to have patience, which may require one to do and redo as
much as possible to get the piece into the correct shape....

It is my opinion that we all would make more pleasingly shaped pieces (and I
include me in the we all) if we were indeed able to overcome the above two
aspects of a turner's attitude. The one other attitude we need to adjust is
our desire to please everyone else - aim to please yourself! When that
happens, you (all of us) will be on the right track in what we make and what
others think of it!

Ray



wrote in message
...
My kitchen cabinets were damaged by the hurricane and I considered
ornamenting the new doors with split spindles. While thinking about
patterns, I got to musing about how ornamented turnings changed over the
years. Old stuff to furniture designers, architects, and interior
decorators who track changes in what is considered current good taste,
but it's interesting that I am considering ornamenting severely plain
doors that were once so up to date and popular.

The ornamentation pendulum swings and 'Victorian excess' gradually
morphed into 'less is more' by way of 'craft movement' and 'art
nouveau'. Holtzapffel's ornate turnings were supplanted by Osolnik's
simple inverted cones. Along the way our high school shop table lamps
were festooned with turned beads and coves. They are tacky now, but Mom
was so proud of them then. Chair rail, crown mould, and interior columns
are the 'in thing' for macmansions again; so are the high baseboards,
tin ceilings and door frame rosettes in my Maine cottage.

Unadorned bowls like Stocksdale's were on the leading edge and are now
timeless, but change is permanent. Ornamentation is again de rigueur
with paint, fenestration and carving being the guidons instead of beads,
coves and astragals of yesteryear.

Don't fight it Arch, get with the program! I'm gonna really gussey up
my kitchen cabinet doors. That is, if Lorraine will let me.


Turn to Safety, Arch
Fortiter



http://community.webtv.net/almcc/MacsMusings