Mind Food

The more time I spend making the more I spend time away from the lathe to find reference for my work.

Tools and techniques can without too much difficulty be learnt in a comparatively quick time compared to understanding and being able to adopt the creative process. I guess because we can see the tools working it is easier to perhaps understand what we are needing to do with them.

Often it is forgotten that the mind is by far our most important and adaptable asset. If it is cluttered then we are not free to explore new ideas.

Like any other organism, our minds need food. The brain  it is estimated makes 20 million billion calculations/second, so it can processes the information we give it pretty efficiently. From what I understand (although I am in no way an expert), that a large part of the brain around 90% is not available to us conciously. IE it is working but in the background so to speak. This however does not mean that information we view, hear, smell and touch is not being processed and stored for later.

A process that I have used for many years is that of flooding.  By this I mean that I expose myself to as much information as possible about a subject or item in the belief that some of it albeit not conciously will be absorbed and available for later use.

An example of this is I will take time out to relax, clear my mind and photograph many hundreds of pictures from buildings, trees, plants, seeds, textures, colours etc etc etc. These are not only used as a visual reference in my work but also to connect re-connect me to the process of observing and taking note.

Often we look but do not see, and photography is a great way of getting us to look in the first place. But it also gives us a permenant reference for later study. It matters little if the pictures are of competition standard, but by observing and engaging with the subjects of our work we gain far more than just visual stimulas. We start to naturally understand the relationships of colour, how textures are made to list a few.

So training the brain and gathering reference material for me is an important part of what I do.

How can I understand about, shapes, form, colour, texture, contrast, etc etc etc if I do not spend the time looking and studying it.

It is also one of the most relaxing off shoots to our hectic lifstyles. The pictures may be stored for many months before I go back to them. However over time I have built up a library of several thousand pictures, all categorised for easy reference and this is a rich source that can be drawn upon.

Also I spend many hours just studying the pictures to find shapes, and forms and ideas.

So in order for me to understand about being creative I have to work hard to obtain the information.

So today I went to Stourhead Gardens, which is a short distance away from my home to de-clutter the brain and to spend some time taking photographs of anything that I found interesting.

I snapped over 300 pics in a couple of hours, here are few  which have been taken straight from the camera with only cropping being used. The colours of the Acer's ( my favourite tree) are as they were seen to the naked eye.


Also are a few pictures I will use for texture and form reference.

When I get the time I may go through my process of working from a reference picture/item to the finished item. Although I often have good intentions. !!  :-)

Axminster Tools

Currently I am taking some time out to re-charge the batteries.  However I will be demonstrating at Axminster Tools, woodturning event, Sittingborne, Kent, on Saturday the 29th of October, for Crown Tools.

It will be a good day so anyone in the area come along for the day and say hi.

Pictures

Photography has been an off shoot hobby that I have picked up due to woodturning.

I very much enjoy taking pictures in and around my local area and here are some that I have now processed from various locations.

The first picture is of my stunning wife and beautiful children that was taken in a famous garden near to my home.

 

The fine detail

On Friday I thought to myself that I would be able to finish off a few bits and pieces in a couple more hours. The thing is it is all the fine detail that takes the time, !! and there has been a lot of fine detail to get through.!!

Final buffing, making sure any spray finishes are as perfect as can be, takes it toll, more on my mind than anything else. Two hours of burnishing by hand of the stand for my last piece reminded me of Police training when we would sit in a room bulling our boots with a rag through thousands of small circles until the finish was perfect, only to have it ripped apart by the drill Sergeant on parade the next day. On occassions we would spend the whole of the Saturday pressing our best uniform and bulling our number 1 shoes ready for Monday that it would drive me mad.

Some time after I left the Police to persue Turning I bumped into an ex-colleaugue who  by this time had climbed the dizzy heights of promotion. We talked about the job and old times and he told me something that I will never forget, he said "nothing is ever wasted".

This rang in my ears today as I was going over the last finishing stages of the pieces ready to go to the gallery on Monday. The attention to manotonous detail when I was training taught me to be thorough to the extreme, to take note of, and deal with the fine detail.

This is not so far removed from making. Paying attention to every process and achieving the best that can be acheived before moving onto the next part builds not only a foundation to add to but also a method of methodical process which I can really get absorbed in. Being involved in each of these processes to the exculsion of all else is for me the only way to work.

It is a waste of time if I do not give my full attention to each part in fine detail,,,  the here and now.

These are a few pieces that I have been finishing.

The top of the page shows an ash lidded form 18inches high x 11 inches dia.

The second is one of my chilli forms.

The bottom being a horse chestnut enclosed form/vase. 7.5 inch dia x 11 inch high.

Finished latest piece

The above piece has finally been finished and is now ready to be packed up and delivered.

It stands 350mm high x 200 wide with the stand and 180mm dia main form. Textured, coloured with acrylic paints. Gold leaf, lid and finial ebonised.

Trying to be organised

While waiting for the kettle to boil for a cuppa I thought I would update what I have been up to today. Generally when I am making and things are going well I do not stop all day other than for a few drinks to keep me hydrated. Food has to wait as a break can interfere with the thought processes involved in making. Also I have more than enough spare pounds to loose so to wait for the evening meal is no real hardship. !

Procrastination is one of my favourite past times. Coupled with this I am very easily distracted and so if I am making a piece and look up on the shelf and see something more interesting I will pick it up and work on it for a hour until I decide to do something else.

While this is conducive to a chilled out life style, it means that I have dozens of almost finished pieces. Due to the new galleries I thought I should be disciplined and work through some more of the forms I have on the shelf.

So today I finished a 11 inch high ash form ready for a lid and finial, made the lid, coloured it and started to produce the finial. In between doing this I prepared a base for a textured and coloured piece and sprayed it black, gold leafed a bead and finished the exterior of the main form. While one piece was drying I worked on another in a sort of conveyor belt system.

I even surprised myself with the amount of playing, I mean work I can do. :-).

All the pieces have to be finished and delivered to the gallery in Castle Carey, a short drive from me on Monday morning.. Some of the pieces will remain in the gallery near to me and some will go off to the other. 
So once the body of work is finished I can photograph the new pieces ready for the off. Complete the paper work and send them on their way.

Anyway kettle finished and a cuppa in hand so it is back out to the workshop.

I will post some pictures later if all goes well.

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Well something important came up in that I forgot I was suppose be helping my 10 year old daughter make a book for a project she has been working on.  Captain James Cook is the subject so it was down tools and watch over her as she aged some paper using tea bags and the oven to dry them.  I did not therefore manage to get finished what I had intended but some things are more important. They only grow up once after all.

The picture at the top of the page is as yet not quite finished and will sit on a plinth/base, which currently is drying so hopefully will be hard enough to work tomorrow.

The large form here is ash around 12 inches dia x 12 inches high and was roughed out some years ago, ( yep one of the pieces I have been meaning to finish for several years now), I told you I liked to procrastinate, :-) , well, things do get in the way. :-)

The piece once finished will and include a lid and finial.

Then once all of these pieces are finished it is on to another sculptural design that has been sketched up and some variations of my latest work and some other ideas which have been sitting my sketch book for, ummm, a while.

Anti Copying In Design

For some time I have noticed makers in certain fields using the work of others for reference, from which they then produce a piece of work that is obviously created from and so close to the original makers design.

There is a difference between reference work and copying. Changing a few parts or even many does not under UK and EU IP law mean that the new piece is the IP of the new maker. On the contrary if the initial source is original be it through all of its seperate parts and or design then changing a few parts of it to try to get around the law is a dangerous route to take.

This is not acceptable and the law on IP "Interllectual Property"  clearly states that taking a design of another and changing a few or more parts does not change the IP design ownership with the new maker breaching UK and EU IP laws.

I have seen this happen with makers within woodturning. There is a difference in making for non profit purposes but when profit is involved then the original makers lively hood is being eroded and their IP attacked it becomes unacceptable.

Therefore today I have joined an organisation call ACID, which stands for Anti Copyright In Design. This organisation is very large and is an official support and legal network for designers and makers who can register their interlectual property/designs with ACID, if any infringment does then occur the original maker can obtain the support of the ACID legal services for any breaches of IP which may be dealt with if not sucessfully resolved.

But more than this the organisation gives makers access to various member benefits and resources

The design that I previously posted and my Chilli form have now been registered with ACID as will any other unique designs that have been made or that I make in the future.

For more information on ACID go here 

This does not refer to the work that I demostrate or have given people permission to actively copy but this will have been clearly stated with regards to which designs.

Of course most of the time people are not aware of IP let alone the problems that breaching it could cause them. So this is another good reason for joining ACID as the organisation is very much about awareness as much as a deterent or solution.