How about a Design/Inspiration Forum?

[Jay Knoll]

Hi everyone

I don't know about you but I find design as difficult as improving my woodworking skills.  I'm always looking for inspiration.  We went to the Palm Beach Fine Art Show yesterday, and saw some of Kent Townsend's work.  I was blown away.

Here's a link to the gallery that represents him

http://www.jsauergallery.com/sagemoon/artistPages/KTownsend.html

Kent was there and graciously spent a half hour with us discussing his work and techniques.  And to cap things off, all of the pulls are sterling silver, one of a kind for each piece he makes, custom cast by a jeweler friend.

It would be great if we had a place where we could all post links and thoughts that inspire our work!  What do you think?

Jay

PS. The show runs through Sunday 1/22/2012.  There isn't a lot of furniture, but if you're at all interested in art (mostly contemporary) it would be worth a trip.

 

[EWTHeckman]

In looking through those pictures, I was reminded of how jazz musicians work. I saw a lot of the same themes through the pieces, but some reused for several different pieces and some variations used for the same type of pieces.

Since I know about playing music that woodworking, I'll just describe what they do. First of all, jazz musicians get very, very familiar with scales. The basics like major and minor, and more advanced ones like blues scales and their variations. They do this for a lot of different keys. Then they learn the chords that go with those scales, and the chord progressions, common ones, plus ones that are specific for a particular piece. At this point they have basic building blocks. In woodworking terms, you might say that they understand various woods and finishes and how to make nice flat pieces, drawer basics, and various joints, etc.

Then they start building a library of runs and musical ideas. But they're really just building fragments. 1 bar, 2 bar, 4 bar pieces that they can play in any key. Great jazz musicians do this all their life, and have hundreds of these pieces in memory to use on the spur of the moment. Then as they're playing within the chord progression (a basic framework) they're just pulling out the idea fragments and fitting them in on the fly. They're not making up a whole piece as they go, they're really just keeping a bunch of ideas close at hand and pulling out whatever strikes their fancy in the moment.

Take a look at the pieces on that page. The first three have the same basic leg shape, but all three are different, as minor variations on the same theme. Further down, I see a desk that's fairly different than the first three pieces, but with another variation on the same basic leg design. There's also a jewelry cabinet and a couple of tables that share a similar leg design, and another table that takes that 2 leg design and splits it into 4. If you keep looking at that page you'll see other themes shared among the various pieces.

It seems to me that any creative endeavor shares the same general creative process. Start by learning the basics. Then develop a set of variations on the basics. Start building a library of idea fragments. Then start putting those fragments and variations on fragments together in varying combinations and adding new ones as you go along. Then pretty soon you'll have people asking where you get your ideas.

HTH

 

[EWTHeckman]

I'm really surprised you haven't gotten any more replies.

Here's a blog that can give you some help with inspiration:

Flair Woodworks

 

[mouppe]

Hi,

Thanks for the link to Kent Townsend's work. I browed his website last night. The leg you referred to is Ruhlmann's famous torpedo leg, and I found a couple of excellent articles on how to make them.

http://www.paulhenryfurniture.com/images/woodwork_article.pdf

http://www.finewoodworking.com/SkillsAndTechniques/SkillsAndTechniquesPDF.aspx?id=27132

Kent Townsend

By coincidence I am nearing the end of a similar piece using a Carpathian Elm burl veneer, and Paul Henry's website features a stunning leg in this exact same wood. I sent him an email to inquire which finish he used, and within hours he had sent me a very detailed reply.

So a big public thank you to Paul for all his help,
Richard.