Pro vs Hobbyist Furniture Makers
 

"George" wrote in message
...
Not really, just about the sizzle being more important to some than the
sirloin.

Sorry you missed it.

I dunno that I can separate the sizzle from the steak. That is, the
attributes of a particular project and the customer's views on them are all
part of a continuum that makes it desirable. For myself, when I'm doing
something commissioned, I do what meets the customer's requirements. If I
exceed them, it's at my own volition. For my own personal stuff, the entire
thing is of my own volition and so I do what I damn well please.

In one of my other professional venues, I work with musicians of all kinds
of levels, and believe me - a great many have work-related toys that have
nothing whatsoever to do with said toy's profitability and everything to do
with what pleasure the tool/instrument/what-have-you gives the user in the
course of his/her work.

The accomplished professional can do whatever it is the customer requires,
and still keep the lights on.

O'Deen

Pro vs Hobbyist Furniture Makers
 

"Swingman" wrote in message
news.com...
|
| Of course there are nazi's in every art form, from music
| to furniture making.

I remember discussing colorized movies with my father. He argued that if
the directors of the old black-and-white movies had had the opportunity to
use color, they would have. While that may be, that's no reason to change
what they actually produced. I put it in terms he (a professor of
architecture) could understand. If Frank Lloyd Wright had had aluminum
siding available to him, he may have used it. Does that give us license to
go glue the stuff to the Robie house after the fact?

I realize that's more about conservancy than about traditional methods, but
there's still gleanable wisdom there. Incidentally one of the issues facing
the conservators of Lloyd furnishings is the rapid decay of the finishes.
Apparently Wright's furniture used a lot of experimental finishing
techniques, many of which have not stood the test of time. So now
conservators are faced with the dilemma of letting the finishes fall off and
accepting the subsequent decay of the piece, recreating all of Wright's
mistakes in applying an "authentic" finish, or trying to duplicate the
visual and tactile effect of those finishes using either modern or
traditional methods.

The only authentic 19th century Shaker chair is one made in the 19th century
by a Shaker. A modern example of a 19th century Shaker chair design is just
that, even if made according to the same techniques and using the same tools
as employed in the original. The preservation of those tools and techniques
serves an important and gratifying historical purpose, but the end product
of that is still a modern article and not to be directly comparable to the
original after which it was patterned.

Appreciation of a modern replica as "art" is strictly a matter of
interpretation in the appreciator. There is no universal standard by which
a modern construction is "validated" as historically authentic, and there is
no agreement about where to draw the line between modern and historic
materials, techniques, and tools. The so-called Nazis are simply advocating
one arbitrary rule, not one that inherently applies.

Valuation of the modern replica as property is strictly a matter of
agreement between buyer and seller. If the seller wishes the method of
construction to be a factor in the value of his piece, and the buyer agrees,
then it's none of my business. There is no "right" or "wrong" in that case.

--Jay

Pro vs Hobbyist Furniture Makers
 

On Mon, 17 Nov 2003 22:56:53 +0000, Tom Watson wrote:

"Love wooddorking and do as you will."

(Freely taken from Augustine - The Confessions)


I wonder if I can get Mrs. McGee to cross-stitch me a copy of this for the
car hole^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H shop?

Nicely done, Tom.

"[W]ho but thou could be the workmaster of such wonders?"
-Augustine, Confessions, 9.6.14

Pro vs Hobbyist Furniture Makers
 

On Sun, 16 Nov 2003 14:16:44 -0800, charlie b
wrote:

The Professional Furniture Maker and The Hobbyist Furniture Maker

The Pro makes six at a time, even if they've only sold two so far.

--
Die Gotterspammerung - Junkmail of the Gods

Pro vs Hobbyist Furniture Makers
 

"Swingman" wrote in message tnews.com...
Yep ... The Shaker's had hammers, therefore you can safely assume that they
had nails/brads and used them.

True, but they might have reserved their hammers only for carpentry
work. But that wasn't really my point. I have no aversion to
nails/brads and such, as long as that's the best technique to use. By
"best" I mean the technique that is the best compromise between
quality and ease of implementation.

Turn over just about any antique I've ever
seen and you will find fasteners of some type ... nothing sinful about it,
IMO.

I live in the land of shiny-and-new-is-better (aka SoCal) so my
exposure to antiques is limited. But, of the antiques I've seen, the
parts that were nailed together are usually the parts that are loose
100 years later. That's based on limited exposure so I don't mean it
to sound like it's a rule of thumb, especially since you can fit all
that I know about antiques in a thimble.

Of course there are nazi's in every art form, from music to furniture
making. I remember the first time I brought an electric bass to a Bluegrass
festival as part of the headline act ... you'd thunk the end of the world
was at hand with all the grumbling in the crowd from the Bluegrass
"purists".

I think a similar thing happened to Bob Dylan so you're in pretty good
company.

Just do your art from the heart and to hell with those stiff necks who
insist there is only one way to do something.

Good advice; but some of those stiff necks know a heck of a lot more
than me about crafting things from wood so I'll keep listening but
will not take anything as being written in stone.

Cheers,
Mike