a few more favorites

in a previous post i promised 'a few more favorites'

and here are 'a few more' ... with almost 1000 posts to choose from, 

it gets a little tricky ...

click the pictures to enlarge them ...

interior design, and

'the spaces we make'

the blog post for the link above is mostly highlight 

general thoughts on architectural and interior design, and

comments on the furniture design/make process ...

 

drawing and thinking : thinking and drawing ...

this is an excerpt from an article by ashley ericsmoen,

an australian based furniture designer/maker and professor of design ... 

i have been drawing for pleasure since i bought the book

'drawing on the right side of the brain' by betty edwards,

back when i had to learn how to present my ideas to 

potential customers back in the late 70s. sadly, i made it

through high school and college without ever having an art course.

there are two relevant posts at the link above and both are 

discussions of the creative process

and two articles recently in the new york times and the new yorker

on ideas and creativity

new york times   temple grandin .. visual thinking

 new yorker  'how should we think about thinking?'

'handwork'?  'machine work'? cnc? does it matter?

 

some cnc work ... 1997, using a cnc at a friend's shop

all 'handwork', no cnc ... 1993?

a cnc router is 'just a tool' that lets us

do things no one would likely pay us to do without it.

the tansu stairs .. both of them 

                                     

these stairs went to california, along with about 15 lineal 

feet of railings for the second floor

the photos the client sent that we used for the concept drawings;

the builder provided onsite measurements to create the shop drawings.

the original tansu stairs,  a local project we did in 1989 ... 

with the railings we added in 2014

sam's belt buckles

pretty much anything you want on them ...

and in case you missed it back in july, 

there's my 'old man project', still a work in progress ...

there are 6 posts there that i still add to from time to time .. 

story of my 51.5 years of life in vermont, and a little bit

from before i stepped off the bus in arlington to visit my sister.

i had $6. in my pocket, and everything i owned in one hand.

all for now ... 

sketchbooks, the essential tool

i've got a couple projects going on, and one of them is going to go on for a lot longer.  the 'cleaning the cellar in the shop' project i should be able to finish up in another 10 or 12 hours of effort, but the 'digitizing the sketchbooks project' will likely go on for another couple years.  so far i have scanned and saved the highlights to this album from three fairly recent ones. 

 you can scroll through the slideshow at this link.

this is maybe a third of it ...

i've been sketching sporadically since 1980 when i bought betty edwards' book 'drawing on the right side of the brain' to learn how to communicate with my clients.  while cleaning the cellar last sunday, i found a fresh box of sketchbooks, likely packed when we moved to dorset from arlington in 1996 containing some drawings from 1988.  the one above is sam's, and he would have been 5 and a half in january 88, the date of one of will's first drawings i found below in the same sketchbook.  will would have been 3 and a half then.  fun ...

i wish i could draw like that now .. i have written on this subject before, and i think it's an important one.  the hand often is a link to the subconscious.  we sometimes don't know what we will draw until we start, and every sketch is not a winner.  some are though, and it is hard to come up with them if you sit down with the intent to 'come up with something new'.  set that pen or pencil free .. see where it goes ..

click the photos to enlarge them ..

this series of sketches and photos below are just a few highlights from the slideshow

'trout desk'

'duck bed'

sometimes new ideas come from existing pieces.  the sideboard and mirror combo are from 1987.  the sketches below from a proposal for a client are from 1988.  

'take an object. do something to it.  do something else to it.' .... jasper johns

 i leave you with a couple more from sam from 1988 ..

yeah, real fun ...

drawing and thinking with michael graves

there was a great little essay by michael graves in the sunday times this week ... in it, mr. graves visits one of my favorite themes, drawing as thinking, which i have written about myself here. it is, in many folks' thinking, an integral part of the creative and communicative process. it is, if i had to pick one, the thing that enables us, as a team, to do what we do. the back and forth sketching, the doodling in our spare time ... the communicative sketch, it's all part of it ...

you can click the photos above and below and read it here, but if you don't mind seeing about a thousand ads, the first link above takes you to the new york times website, where you can read it much more easily ...

mr. graves has also written other pieces on the subject, and here is a link to a nice slideshow of his drawings, with comments, that i encountered online while writing this post ... and here's another link to some of my 'spare time' drawings that sometimes lead to new furniture designs ...

Drawing and Thinking...Thinking and Drawing

Clipping above from my bulletin board ... source unknown.... been there for a while

Having just spent the weekend at the Woodstock Furniture Show, talking to people about what I do and how I do it, the theme of drawing for work and for pleasure came up many times. This is a meaty subject for me. I have been drawing, both for my business and for pleasure now for almost 30 years. A long time. It is probably, one could say, my primary tool. the origin of all things ... and, a distinct and rewarding pleasure in my life. The process mystifies and engages me. At our recent Guild meeting Friday, two items from The Furniture Society ( of which the Guild is now a member) were passed around. The newsletter, Furniture Matters, and the conference catalog, State of the Craft were distributed. Both reminded me of why I belong to both organizations (community and ideas) and why I occasionally still do shows (to talk and think about what I do). A month or so ago I received permission from Ashley to post her essay below on drawing. She catches the essence of the drawing thing. Click it to read it ... Enjoy it ... Get out your pen and keep a sketchbook handy.



Ashley Ericksmoen is a designer, maker and educator in Oakland, California....

A good place to start ... 'Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain'

A collection of my 'for pleasure' drawings I put together earlier this year

The post idea/visualization process


The completed project ... Railing Project

Coffee table with 'secret' compartments ... (unbuilt)

Detail exploration ... The Lutyens Style Desk

Early potential trestle designs for The Claro Walnut Slab Desk ...

Sunrise/Sunset


Sketch over photo ... The Tansu Style Stairs
Concept for pizza oven removable/reusable arched roof form

Cockatoo Table early concept sketches

Recycled Chestnut 'Tub Table'



A John Cedarquist piece in a client's home ... How could this not have started from a drawing??? Get your pen .... Have at it ... More on this subject to follow ...