Workmanship

In trying to understand craft better, I have been reading a range of books and articles.  In one of these, David Pye* talks about workmanship instead of craft or craftmanship.

Some elements from this book have a resonance for me, and I trust others: 

"Designers have only been able to exist by exploiting what workmen have evolved or invented." p.17

"Material in the raw is nothing much.  Only worked material has quality and pieces of worked material are made to show their quality by men [and women], or put together so that together they show a quality which singly they had not"  p.18

He talks about the quality of workmanship being judged by the soundeness and aesthetics ("comeliness") of the result. p30

"workmanship is the application of technique to making, by the exercise of care, judgement and dexterity."  p.51




*The Nature and Art of Workmanship, by David Pye, 1968, rev. ed. 1995

Studio Visits

Yesterday I went to the Fife Open Studios. I went especially to see some glass studios of people that I have come to know, but have never seen where they work. So I got to see where Liz Rowley works. This is a purpose-built studio with windows on two sides, one of which makes a perfect light easel. I was assured that the studio is rarely so neat, but it still looked a workman-like place. She had some work in progress displayed and there were numerous photographs. It was fun for me to see how another person doing very similar work organises things. The studio talks were given by Eilidh Mackenzie who has some of her work displayed too.

I then took my wife on to see where Adrienne McStay works. The address is of a farm, but the setting, although rural, is not mixed with animals and equipment. Her studio is the old dairy of the farm, with interesting rounded ends to the building, and tiled floors. Surrounding her studio are a number of the wood and glass objects she creates. There also is a large canvas covered area to allow her to work outside. Also of course there is a furnace and an annealing oven for her glass work.

These open studio events are really interesting for the maker and general public alike. You can also purchase items direct from the artist, or commission work from them. We purchased a few things:

Apple

Amethyst Sea Stone

Green Sea Stone

These are, if you like modern takes on paperweights. I like them for their feel in my hand. Maybe these are my new worry beads.

The Fife Open Studios run until 5pm on Monday. Get along to some of them if you can

The "C" Word

I was at the launch of the craftscotland "C" Word advertisement launch on Friday evening. It was exciting to see lots of people enthused about craft - there I've gone and spoiled it for you! Lots of people talking about craft and their reactions to it and how to promote it.



The campaign has a nice logo too which you can see at the foot of the page. Follow the links for more information on this high profile campaign.

DIY Craft

I note Emma Walker’s encouragement for us all to embrace the DIY movement in the craftscotland website.

The idea of DIY craft has had to be explained to me. Emma gives a good description of what it is in the USA. My description is “Enthusiast”. Because craft is still largely an activity carried out by the person who imagines the object that they then create, it is still largely DIY. Technology increasingly plays a part in craft production and processes. But this is not about technology as far as I can see it.

It may be that I am being dense here, but I think I have been encouraging people to explore my medium for over 10 years. I have offered workshops and classes to many people. The studio I have been involved with, has offered open access facilities for people to create things for themselves. Some of these people have become dedicated workers – although not many have become full time workers. Most who have continued, make things for themselves and others. A few sell their work at craft fairs and through galleries.

This is what I understand the DIY movement people do too. I am not sure what has changed. Is it the volume of people newly interested in making things themselves? A number of suppliers of materials for various craft forms have long been kept alive by these enthusiasts/DIYers.

I guess I just don’t get it.

Shoals

I continue to be fascinated by the use of simple shapes to build an image, theme or idea. This time I chose a simple shape of two curves - one a simple curve and the other a compound curve. I began playing with them and came up with a shoal.

Shoal 1

Further playing produced a variation, producing opposing and interacting pairs.

Paired Shoal

Further application of these shapes and a few other random shapes lent themselves to this oval.

Shoal 4

In doing these things I sometimes think of Christopher Alexander's "The Nature of Order". I have only read the first book, and that took quite a while. Perhaps sometime I will give my reactions - for what they may be worth - on his theory. Anyway, the patterns I develop are initially done without concern for obvious aesthetic, but as I begin to adjust and slightly re-arrange things, some of his comments about pattern, repetition and flow do come to mind. Although I wish they would not. They interrupt the flow of what I am trying to do - be spontaneous - too much. Too much theory gets in the way, unless it can be so woven into practice that it is instinctive.

Artistic Influences

One of the difficult elements in practicing craft relates to influences vs. copying. The statement that "nothing under the sun is new" is clearly not true, or there would be no advances. Each advance is built on earlier work, of course (with the occasional brilliant exception). I have often seen people claim a particular way of working as theirs, as in "no one else is allowed to do this". It seems to me that techniques, unless patented, are free for others to make use of in their expression. However their expression is their own, can be copyrighted, and should not be copied.
To make these ramblings specific, I need to give you my response to a visit to Joe Smith's garden during the Spring Fling Festival. Joe has a beautiful garden that is well tended and has some of his wonderful slate sculptures in it.

Although this photograph does not do justice to the house, you can see a few of the sculptures at the front and in the gable end of the house.

The garden has a number of the classical shapes as well as other sculptures. This picture shows a view of part of the garden, as well as what a nice day it was.

Joe had a tent at the back of the garden with information about his work, the Spring Fling, and a little set up showing the tools, materials, and beginnings of a sculpture. Now the relevance of this to artistic influence is how you take an idea into another medium. When I saw the work method, my immediate reaction was that I have a lot of glass shards, called cullet. These could be used in a similar way to Joe's work with the slate.

So I saw a technique that has a long lineage. As far as I can see, Joe is using a dry stone walling technique that is ancient. But he is creating a sculptural object, rather than a wall or fence. So I thought about things for a while, maybe trying to justify my desire to try out the building up of a shape from thin pieces. For me, the translucency that could be achieved from using glass was an attraction. It has the appeal of sculptural depth that I cannot normally achieve with fusing. It could have a different feel (both visual and tactile) than cast glass. It is not a single piece and yet it is a whole.

So I began work. As I continued up several layers, I began to think of the brochs in Glenelg (Images 13-18 especially). There are of course brochs all over the north west of Scotland and Orkney and Shetland have the most famous and best preserved. But Glenelg was the place I first experienced these amazing iron age structures. Their excellent construction is shown by the fact that after thousands of years they still stand. They speak to me of a completely different kind of life than I normally think of for Britons of the time of Christ.

So this object began to be an exploration of history and antiquity. This is not normally an area that I investigate, although my university degree is in History. This object became a comment on how through looking at history we are searching for an identity. We look at the past to compare ourselves and in looking reflect ourselves onto the past. So when we look into the past do we just see ourselves?

This led to building a small broch-like shape with a mirrored top. The piece will have an intensely coloured shape in the bottom that will glow faintly through the glass shards, inviting the viewer to look within the piece and so have their face reflected in facets.

I trust that Joe Smith will not be insulted, or feel copied. He certainly needs acknowledgement in this development though.

Spring Fling

This year we decided to visit the "Spring Fling" properly and stay for a few days in the area. Spring Fling is a three day event organised for studios in the south west of Scotland. The studios are selected by the organisers. A very professional brochure is published to guide you round the studios and sights of the area. We visited a number of studios during our two day stay in Kirkcudbright.

We visited a number of studios, but one or two we missed as the directions assume you are traveling the marked routes and in a particular direction. I suppose some assumptions have to be made, and it would be difficult to provide a map in addition to the directions for each studio without making the publication cluttered and pedestrian. I should have printed off maps from the mapping sites, as each studio gives its full postal address. We did find quite a few, and did enjoy the countryside.

Among the studios we visited were: Judith Gregson who does delightful carvings of plant forms into and on sandstone. The scale ranges from table top to monumental. For those of you who like to have multimedia presentations and demonstrations, Adam Booth at Piper's Forge is a treat. As his work is so large (generally) most of the time spent with him is viewing a well presented show of his work in progress and installed. At the end of the visuals, he demonstrates the way he works by producing a leaf. If you are lucky you can walk away with one of these as a gift.

We went to Glencaple to visit two artists, one of whom I came into contact through "Cutting Edge" a travelling exhibition organised by the National Museums of Scotland in which we were both represented. Mark Devlin is a furniture maker of significant inventiveness. We saw a piece of furniture and are now in the process of commissioning a similar one. At the same venue was William Spurway whose landscapes captivated us. So much that we bought a painting of two winter oaks. He also had displayed a large lively drawing of a bull that showed a very different side to his work.

Among other studios we visited there were more highlights: Lizzie Farey produces sculptural work in basketry. The forms and shapes she uses are very attractive to me, and I bought one wall piece. If I could have afforded it, I would have bought a group of three. Her studio is in a farmstead, using, along with other artists, the barns and sheds converted to studios with wood burning stoves for warmth. Among those working there is Hanna McAndrew who works with an amber to black range of glazes. Again a purchase could not be resisted.

Another significant visit for me was to Joe Smith's garden. The range of slate sculptures just in his garden is amazing. I will tell more about this visit and influence later.

Of course I did have to visit some glass studios. The first of these that I visited was Amanda Simmons. The front rooms of her house were turned into a bright open exhibition space showing a wide range of her work and descriptions with photographs of various community projects. Her studio was open too. This showed just how much work is required to prepare for these three days. Going round her studio made me think of how messy my studio is, because everything was neatly tidied away. Work surfaces were clean and uncluttered, materials were stored and labeled, the floor was almost spotless.

One of the reasons for going to the studios was to get ideas of how I might deal with my studio for the WASPS Open Studios in the Autumn (first weekend of October, if you are planning to come). There is a lot of work needed to get the studio into shape if you are going to use it as a display place. Some people we went to see had a separate permanent display area or place, but others just had to clean up. Some had spent the whole of the week preparing for the weekend - clearing up, finding other storage places, painting, etc. So I have to do something more than deciding on Friday night how things will be displayed on Saturday and Sunday. This was good for me.

The other glass studio I visited is a must for entertainment and education. Ed Igelhart is a showman, philosopher and entertainer in addition to his skills as a lamp worker. If you are in the area, you must make contact to see if you can visit. He sat in his big open tepee-like tent making objects and talking to the audience. When there were no questions, he would begin on a subject that came to mind whether it might be the current primaries for the USA presidential election, or his explanation of the periodical table for elements through a kind of sex education programme. He was always entertaining and informative. You could spend more time at his studio than all the others put together.

You can see I had a great time at the spring fling, and the hotel in Kirkcubright wasn't bad either. If you look at the Kirkcubright site, you will see that there is an Autumn crafts trail around the town.